Surely as the Sun
by Nena
Summary: COMPLETE! A chemical capable of stopping all human reproduction is released into the Earth and Colonies just after peace is established. Heero Yuy is missing. Relena Peacecraft is stripped of her position and suffers a nervous breakdown. Canon Couples.
1. Prologue

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Surely As the Sun

By: Nena

Prologue

_In the year of AC 199, Relena Dorlian-Peacecraft became the soul-heir of a manufacturing company spread universally throughout the colonies. It had been unaccounted for since the then-believed annihilation of the Peacecraft family, and while the rest of the world ignored its base destructive nature, it would no longer be forgotten. Specializing in organic-based technology, the scientists working under the wings of the company's inconspicuous heading and funding left them time – years of evolved knowledge and equipment. When it was discovered that Relena was the heir to the company, what she found there would change the course of history as mankind knew it._

A chemical compound known as Matriz Árida_ had been perfected and stored in several large containers beneath the underground levels of the facility. When Relena Peacecraft first took control over the company there had only been sketches of the aforementioned chemical to her knowledge, thus the scientists were questioned behind the documentation of any actual product procurement. Denying any involvement with the storing of the chemical, and thus lacking any proof to discredit them, Relena Peacecraft was forced to allow the scientists to continue their work. After returning to their science, Preventors were beckoned in to sniff out anything that could be used as a weapon of warfare. The head of this team was Heero Yuy. His involvement with the study was immaculate, having had first-hand experience with earlier versions of the chemical during his training years under the Zero System. But by the time the containers were discovered, it was already too late._

The rate at which the chemical replicated itself was fast enough to be dispensed into the atmosphere of the entire globe within 3 hours. One container was placed on every colony. A universal panic was ensued, brought about by the release of the Matriz Árida_._

Every female who inhaled the compound could no longer produce children. Human or animal, it left none still fertile. In the four years that the chemical had been released there had been no new births, and the human race was steadily dwindling. The last children to be born were the ones already in their mother's wombs at the time.

Meat was non-existent. The only consumption of food was with raw fruits and vegetables. Nearly ¾ of the economy went completely under when food markets were no longer able to serve meat, while the rest of the economy accelerated at an extreme rate through mass crop-selling and vitamin-supplements. The first year after the release of the chemical the economy was declining at a slow pace, as there were still beef and chicken markets. After the first year people resorted to vitamins. Poverty had struck nearly everyone, everywhere. Those who could not afford the vitamins simply died from malnourishment. The population reduced by half as a result of the deaths of impoverished families combined with the non-existent birth rate and the natural deaths of the elderly.

Suicide was rampant. It began in the odd behavior of the common Love Bug. The insects simply stopped feeding on any type of vegetation, and if they reached full maturity, they no longer attached to a mate. It spread like wildfire through every species, save for those capable of asexual reproduction.

The day the effects of the chemical were broadcasted, 1 in 4 women attempted suicide.

The scientists capable of creating an antidote killed themselves shortly thereafter the act, claiming that the world deserved a chance to start over with a clean sweep. But not before they were able to capture and sedate Heero Yuy, using him as a test subject for an even more advanced stage of the chemical. He was found the day after the suicide, choking and spewing on a liquid form of the compound while submerged in a tank of its concentrated form. Before doctors were able to determine what the effects would be, Heero Yuy had disappeared.

Word was received to the public that the Vice Foreign Minister had known about the chemical and could have prevented its release. While she was still considered a political figurehead and the rumors were corrected, the masses were wary of her efficiency. Half the population was in a panic and assassination attempts were a thing to be dealt with on an hourly basis. Thus Relena Peacecraft was forced into hiding and a profound guilt and shame she could neither accept nor deny ravaged her waking thoughts, and drove her into a mental breakdown.

As their beloved leader fell, the world watched on with empty and hopeless eyes. Purpose and fulfillment seemed a thing of the past. The only thing to do now was survive.


	2. Chapter One

AN: This story is rated PG-13 for violence.

Also, I don't own Gundam Wing or Spongebob or Patrick.

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Surely as the Sun

Chapter One

Quatre walked briskly down the hallway of the psyche ward, sterile and blue and daunting in the overhead fluorescent lights. Around him the rooms were shut in, caged and confined miracles of people behind their thick doorways. His khaki slacks and bright green shirt looked odd among the metallic of the hospital itself, but he could pay no notice. His mouth was set in a grim line that remarked of a very long time without happiness, and his eyes were set and focused on a large door at the very end of the hall.

One elderly woman was being led to her room by a young nurse who held the woman by her elbows as if she were brittle, speaking in calm, hushed tones as she reached to open a cell door. The old woman looked up at him, hair the color of white foam from the ocean set against dark, Latin skin. Her wrinkled brown eyes looked gray and faded, but when she saw his face she smiled and gripped the sides of her walker. Quatre did not look her way, and when he passed her by, her eyes fell do the ground.

He jangled the keys in his pocket and continued down the hallway. That morning had been a particularly hard morning, brought about by the chaos of yet another terrorist threat on the Vice Foreign Minister's life. No one outside of the Gundam pilots, Une, Relena's family, and the hospital staff knew where she was being contained, and thus this refuted the entire claim of the threat, but it still made him nervous. When he reached the door and quietly slid in, the lights were out in the room, but he could make out Relena's form in the glass balcony outside. She sat in a whicker chair surrounded by several different types of flowers, but she was ignoring them, looking at the sky and risking glances directly at the overhead sun.

To his right he could make out Duo sitting on a guest chair, sitting on it backwards with his chin resting on his arms against the back. He looked up at Quatre and scarcely acknowledged him, but neither of them expected much of anything more. Of all of them, Duo seemed to have taken Heero's capture, disappearance, and Relena's breakdown the hardest. In the beginning he had remained hopeful and encouraging, but as it became clearer and clearer that Heero could not and would not be found, and Relena's state of mind became less and less engaged with society, the slow crumbling of his reason became evident with each passing day.

His relationship with Hilde had suffered the most with the release of the chemical. Hilde had just found out she was pregnant at the time, so they considered themselves lucky, but just four weeks later she had had a miscarriage. Hilde, against Duo's wishes, had been considering an abortion. When she lost the baby, she stopped speaking for 3 months. To have felt so fortunate about making a right decision and then have it taken from you can leave someone strong and resolute very empty. And numb.

It simply left Duo bitter and in a constant rage that would not be put out. Despite everyone's protests, he continued working and never took time off throughout the entire ordeal. He stayed in late nights in the office and when he wasn't at work he was here with Relena. He avoided going home to Hilde at any cost, only to sleep. When she finally started speaking again, their conversations became arguments. Hilde's voice would rise with every comment she made to the point that it was leaving Duo with constant migraines. His own attempted calm voice she would completely ignore. One day, without any sort of warning, he began screaming at Hilde in that terrifying way that is wild and uncontrolled. In the aftermath of it all, when questioned about his marriage, he would simply wear his usual cheery mask for everyone around him. But at home, it was as if they were strangers.

Quatre flicked the lights on and Duo grimaced, but continued staring out onto the balcony. His eyes were shot and he had grown pale, dark circles embedded under his lashes, but he grinned in spite of everything. "Did you find anything on those idiots?"

Quatre sighed. "Just the usual vacant threat. They know where we are keeping Relena, we'll blow the building up, whatever."

"That's just perfect. Let's just keep exterminating humankind so we can become extinct even faster then we're already heading. You know," he sat upright in his chair, "I've been thinking a lot about these guys. I mean, what do you think goes through their heads? Do they think that by killing Relena Peacecraft they're going to throw us into a war? That they're going to gather enough people to back them up and have an army? Everyone's _tired_. No one would fight even if they wanted to. The only terrorist groups now are ones made up of psychos!"

"Hey!"

He glanced down the hall at one of the patients and mumbled an apology. Quatre shot him a look.

"Duo, do you really think you should be talking so loudly about this? I mean, what if they were to hear you and tell their families when they come to visit?"

Both of them turned their attention to the male patient from before who was laughing hysterically at the television. On the screen were Spongebob and Patrick. Patrick had an angry look on his face and was staring straight ahead with his eyebrows scrunched together.

"Hey, Patrick. Why do you have that angry look on your face?"

"_Because_."

"Because why?"

"I can't see my forehead."

The man burst into laughter once again and grabbed the television and promptly began to smash his head into it.

--

A blinding yellow ball of gas and fire was teetering across the sky. When she glanced at it long enough it simply drifted from a yellow to a white and sparkled. Her eyes felt dry and burning, and she glanced away. She could no longer make out any shapes around her and she closed her eyes, inhaling the scents of the foliage. Everything seemed to go in slow motion these days. She couldn't quite remember how she ended up in this place. She couldn't remember how long she'd been here. Everything had been her fault. She should have been more careful.

When it happened, she had been in her office. She struggled to recall some sort of memory that clung to the walls of her brain, but only came out with distorted images and echoes of sound. Still, when she focused, she could remember. She had been in her office. Scribbling down notes on what she thought she wanted to speak on in the next public hearing. She had smelled something peculiar and brushed it off as nothing, but not 10 seconds later Sally, Une, and Noin had rushed into her office, eyes bulged and wild and frantic.

….airborne chemical released…5 miles from here…what would Zechs think?...extinction…no children…sterile…empty.

Back then she had believed she could have done something. That someone, somewhere, would develop a cure for it. That it couldn't have possibly affected her because she felt fine, that it was completely impossible for someone to be able to do that. It was human. Natural.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a crash down the hallway and she glanced towards her room. Duo was helping one of the 'crazies', as he dubbed them, trying to get him away from a broken television set. He had done this before. Strike three, buddy. No more TV for you.

Quatre reached to help but then glanced at her and stood still. He smiled, and she returned the sentiment, but just as soon as she had done it it vanished. Her eyes glazed over and she turned to look back at the sun.

She could have done something to stop it. She shouldn't have ignored those scientists, if only she had known about it sooner. Heero wouldn't be gone. Hilde wouldn't have lost the baby. The world would be fine. It was her. It was all her. She should have been more careful…

--

"Did you see that?"

Quatre whipped around from the glass separating Relena from the world and faced Duo, who was shaking his head as the paramedics, once again, carried the loony away from the obviously too-great-of-a-health-hazard television.

"See what?"

"She smiled. She actually smiled at me. How long has she been doing that?"

Duo's expression at once turned sympathetic as he shook his head and made his way over to the glass wall. "She does it every once in a while. But just as soon as she comes to herself, she goes away again. Don't try to talk to her when she's in that coming-back state," at this, he cast his eyes downward and lowered his voice, "unless you want her BP to go through the roof and you have an A-Fib handy."

The two Gundam brothers stared at one another for a moment, and Quatre reached to put a hand on Duo's shoulder, when a loud buzz shattered the quiet. He shot Duo an apologizing glance and reached for his phone. Duo turned to look back at Relena as Quatre suddenly became enveloped in a conversation, running his fingers along the smooth, chilled glass. At the sound of Relena's name he listened attentively to Quatre's conversation, watching as his expression suddenly became grim and he cast Duo a tired, angry look. When he hung up the phone he grabbed his coat and headed for the door.

"What happened?"

--

Une's black heels clicked harshly against the tile of the Preventor's Bureau, her hands clinched at her sides. Approximately two minutes earlier she had received a near panicked phone call from Mariemeia who proceeded to relish a jumble of words out of her mouth all at once, and when her mother asked her to repeat everything, told her to "just turn on the news." When she reached the lobby she found several of her co-workers already gathered around the television set, and on screen was Elliot Benja. She subconsciously shuttered.

Elliot Benja was one of the leading manufacturers of Ethanol from corn crops before the outbreak of the _Matriz Áreda_. Since the chemical was released, corn was highly sought after, but because of the sheer amount of it needed the Ethanol from corn crops used in oil and gas was declining steadily. Having the largest company that manufactured it, he instantly became one of the candidates to take over Relena Peacecraft's position. He just as quickly was elected as such.

Since his election he had taken small measures at gaining more power, albeit through charm and persuasion and promises of a cure to come swiftly if he was supported, as well as the use of his company to help raise the rapidly dwindling economy. People trusted everything that man said. As Une continued listening to Benja's speech, her eyes narrowed.

Apparently, as an act of self-preservation, there would be founded "camps". Their locations would not be revealed, and in these camps would remain all young girls who had not yet started their menstrual cycles. The camps would be underground, and filtered against any small trace of the _Matriz Áreda_. These young women would still be able to have children. There was hope. It was genius. It was the perfect solution.

It was absolutely ridiculous. She cursed under her breath, while the shocked gasps around her slowly evolved into a dull roar in the hallways of Preventor's. She heard several people call out her name as she speed-walked back to her office, but she completely ignored them. Worry and slight panic tensed in her shoulders, and she could feel a headache coming on. She flew past her secretary and ground out a "Get me the Board of Trustees. Now." before slamming her office door shut. Her rattled secretary reached for the phone but yelped and dropped it when Une stuck her head out the door.

"And Heero Yuy. Find him. I don't care how, call every head of security we have affiliated with him if you have to, but find him. He's not invisible. He's human. He can't hide forev…" her thoughts drifted for a moment, as if she were correcting herself, but then she looked back at her secretary. "Just find him."

--

"They're doing WHAT?"

The metal chair screeched across the floor and collided with the wall as Duo started pacing around the room, his hair a disheveled mess as he attempted to run his hands through the hair on his scalp. Quatre was already making his way to Relena, intent on speaking with her at least once before he left, but Duo blocked the entrance to the balcony and stared at him like he was either a.) stupid, or b.) not going to get past him without losing a limb. Or maybe c.) a & b.

"She doesn't need to know about this." He said, eyes glistened over with some mixture of sadness and relentless abandon. "She couldn't do anything about it even if you told her. It wouldn't register."

Quatre sighed and began the long trek back to his government vehicle parked outside the ward. Duo followed him, quietly locking the door and leaving Relena alone to wherever her mind had been taking her for the past few months.

"Duo, Une wants you to find Heero."

"Oh, come on! Is she serious? Like that is _ever_ going to happen…"

Quatre paused. "We have to at least try. He could bring her back."

"If Heero Yuy doesn't want to be found, he won't be found. It's that simple. The only way that guy would ever come back into the scene was if it had something dire to do with Relena's safety, and that…what are you looking at me that way for?"

Quatre grinned devilishly. Duo stared at him as if he _were_ the devil.

"Not to mention he would KILL ANYONE who attempted to trick him back into the limelight! Quatre, you can't be serious…" Quatre continued his walk back, while Duo sighed and threw his hands in the air. "We're gonna die. We're all gonna die."

--

He jumped off the side of a building with quiet ease, and landed with a dull thud on the dark alley streets below. Rain was coming down in sheets, and lightning lit up the sky every few seconds. Nights like tonight were his kind of thing, perfect for once again exposing his body to the weathering conditions it had become immune to before. When he had been sedated and opened up and prodded by those scientists, he was vacantly aware that they were doing something and changing something in his body, and he was slowly becoming conscious of the things they had done to him. He was faster. Stronger. His senses were perfected to the point that every small thing caught his attention. When he had first woken up from the exploratory surgeries, it had overwhelmed him. He heard and saw everything. But then, while he had been away, he had learned to control it.

He saw a rat out of the corner of his eye, and before the rodent had even moved, the sound it would make reached his ears. Seconds later the sound echoed and the rat shot out between two dumpsters lined along the alley. Behind one of the dumpsters he could see three black figures hiding, but he heard their breathing before he saw them. His deep, cold, and calculated voice was harsh against the rain and thunder, which even those seemed to have quieted the moment he began to speak.

"I'm going to suggest to you now – do not attempt to do anything stupid, or I will kill you."

The three figures came out of hiding, burley giants of men, probably underpaid bouncers he admonished. The one in the center cackled, and the other two followed while their guns glinted in the moonlight. He glared at them in that detached way, eyes heartless and empty and void of any type of feeling, then turned his back to them. The three looked at one another in mild amusement as he did so. He started to walk away and the leader suddenly became angry.

"Stop!"

He stopped with his back to them. The three men looked at him in somewhat of a precautious way, with due reason. His dark hair falling at odd, uneven lengths around his face. He had on nothing but a pair of jeans, and the rain came down hard on his exposed shoulders and back, but both seemed immune. The muscles lining his back and tense and tight along his shoulders and arms seemed immune against the outside weather, and lethal. Arms at his sides and hands open, while he stood at a hunched angle, they had a moment of reasoning. And that was all he gave them.

The moment he could sense the three approach him he spun around and kicked all three guns out of their hands. As they fell to the ground, he grabbed one and brought the handle crashing down into one of the would-be killer's skull. He crumpled to the ground with the gun lodged deep into his temple.

The leader came at him, probably over 300 pounds of a man of hard and lean muscle, and brought his right arm around in a strong and fast punch, snapping Heero's face to the side. A snapshot of a memory came to him of Duo doing the same thing, and as he brought his face around he underhanded a punch beneath the man's abdomen, sending him backwards as he stumbled to catch his breath. Not giving him a chance, he climbed on top of the man's shoulders, and the man began to wildly flail his arms above his head. He slammed his body against the sides of the building, crushing Heero between the building and his back, but just as quickly Heero reached down around the man's chin and snapped his neck. He casually slipped off while the man fell to the ground and grabbed one of the guns from the ground. His eye's scanned the streets and he found the other still running, several blocks away. Without even focusing, he shot at the man several miles away, who jerked for a moment in mid-stride and then fell to the ground.

--

The door creaked open as Duo slipped into his apartment, slightly cursing. The lights were off, as it were almost two in the morning, and Hilde was asleep in the bed. He walked into the bedroom and slipped in beside her, pulling the blankets over himself. It was freezing in this room. She had her back to him, and she stirred slightly at the pressure his body put on the mattress. She turned over to look at him.

"Where have you been?"

He couldn't see her face in the darkness. He started to speak, but then his voice caught in his throat as he saw a baby thermometer still in the box sitting on top of her nightstand.

"Never mind. I don't care." She whispered, and turned back over onto her side. His pillow smelled of salty tears, and he reached over to run his hand along her back, but stopped just millimeters short of touching her. He left his hand there for a moment, then reluctantly pulled it back underneath the covers.


	3. Chapter Two

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Surely as the Sun

Chapter Two

__

You will call and I will answer you;  
you will long for the creature your hands have made.

Job 14:15

Elliot Benja was a patient man.

Honestly, he was.

Of all of those pompous, idiotic council members, he seemed to be the only one with an idea worthy of consideration. He knew that it was going to be like an uphill battle trying to get mothers and fathers to willingly abandon their children to camps. But really, what other option was there? Humanity was going extinct, for goodness' sake. But none of that seemed to matter right now. He knew with time they would all see the necessity of his proposal. When families no longer had anyone left to carry on their names.

It had been wonderful publicity in the beginning. When his researchers had discovered that females who had not yet started their menstrual cycles could indeed get pregnant eventually, everyone had clung to his ideals and suggestions. So why did it seem such a ridiculous idea to protect them the only way he knew how?

None of it seemed to matter now, however. The idea was a cover-up, seemingly inconspicuous to the ignorant population of the entirety of human existence. People were blinded by their desperation, and in the end, he would be their only option. He and his creation.

Elliot stared through the small glass panel at the top of the containment area door. Inside was a man with unruly dark hair, muscles tense and tight, strapped down to a surgical table. His eyes were closed but his brow was knit together, sweat sliding down the side of his face. A doctor lifted the side of the man's shirt and slid a very thick needle into the skin just above his hip bone. There was no reaction. He withdrew a fairly large amount of blood into the syringe itself, but then brought about another syringe and inserted a yellow liquid that looked almost like a carbonated beverage into the syringe with the blood. When the chemical reached the blood it reacted like acid, bubbling and spewing inside the glass. The doctor stopped and made some sort of mental note, then proceeded to re-insert the fused chemical back into the man's body. He stepped away.

The patient clinched his hands tightly, the veins in his arms running along the surface. A moment passed before he groaned in protest, only slightly, then choked on the beginning of his yell as a wave of pain washed over him. His body attempted to twist in a fetal position but the straps restricted him, and in the corner of the room a heart monitor was beeping at an alarming rate. The doctors and Elliot watched on with impassive faces as the man suddenly began to shake violently from seizures, his eyes shooting open and then rolling into the back of his head as the chemical dispersed into his system. His teeth clamped down on his mouth guard, crushing it as another seizure took effect. After another moment, his body suddenly stopped and he lay flat and exhausted on the table. He gasped and then sighed, his chest moving up and down in irregular beats as the heart monitor began to slowly wine down. His eyes opened half-way, Prussian blue staring tiredly at the ceiling, not really focusing on anything.

The doctor from before slid a pen out from his coat pocket and scribbled something down on his clipboard, then caught Elliot looking in from outside the door. He grinned and waved him in. Elliot pushed open the door and clapped his hands together, a smile working its way on his face.

"Tell me my miracle is in the making. Come on, preacha'!" He laughed, rubbing his hands together.

"Well, this is the 74th trial we've run. It's a _miracle _he's survived the chemical this long, but if these test results are any indication of what's to come, I'd say you've got yourself a bona-fide monster here, Vice Foreign Minister. This guy is…well, he's just…"

"Immortal. Unconquerable. Unbeatable! Perfect!" He practically squealed into the last phrase, then walked around to the side of the table and stared down at the man's face, eyes now closed and a placid, slightly pained expression still left there even after he had fallen unconscious. Elliot frowned and reached into his pocket, pulling out a white handkerchief and dabbing it along the man's mouth where a small spot of blood had splattered. "Give me a report on last night, Doctor Patrenko."

"Well, Heero went – "

"Heero Yuy does not exist." He spat, eyes snapping to attention at the doctor, who stuttered for a moment and then regained his composure.

"Excuse me. The patient went unaccompanied outside of the premises with the hidden camera. He did nothing but what he was told to do before he left. There were no indications that he remembered anything from before coming here. He was attacked by three men on his second trip around the city, all three of whom had hand-held weapons."

Elliot raised an eyebrow. "And?"

"He killed all of them, sir. Without hesitation…" He paused for a moment and scanned his clipboard. "A 4 increase in reaction time, 6 increase in sound detection…there was one point when he heard some rodent before it even moved."

"Alright. Sounds like his body is accepting the chemical nicely. I'm feeling a little…daring. Send him on another run tonight. This time, let him interact with people. See how he handles society without seeming conspicuous."

The doctor nodded and turned back to Heero, starting to remove his bindings.

"Oh, before you do that…give him another shot of it."

Doctor Patrenko sputtered. "Bbut…sir, we've never administered more then one trial every two days. If you were to give him two in one day it could overdose his system entirely…"

"Do not question me! Do it now. I've got a conference with those idiot delegates in thirty minutes to decide what the fate of Relena Peacecraft's political career will be, and we are running out of time. He must be ready!" Elliot stalked out of the room and slammed the door. The Doctor nodded quietly and walked over to Heero's bed-table. He picked up Heero's limp arm and tapped slightly against his wrist, checking his pulse. He once again peeled back Heero's shirt, now drenched in sweat. Heero's jaw clenched and he seethed between his teeth, his body subconsciously trembling at the contact.

--

"Princess?"

Relena's gaze drifted lazily over to the doorway where Duo stood, a cocky grin on his face. In his hands he held a fairly-sized bouquet of bright blue Larskpur showered with white Foamflower. Hilde stood behind him, looking small and a little timid in jeans and a t-shirt. Her black hair shone in the light from the hallway and she half-smiled in the glare.

"I was thinking we could go for a walk around town tonight. What do you say?"

Relena looked out the window. Duo sighed. She never went out. She hadn't left this building unless it was absolutely necessary since they brought her here months ago. He had just been hoping today would be different…

She looked outside at the dark clouds in the distance. She sniffed the air.

Rain. It would rain tonight.

She smiled and turned back to the couple and offered a barely perceptible nod. That was all Duo needed.

--

Several weeks passed by, and each day Relena Dorlian would stay outside a little longer. Smiles half-crippled by the wake of her constant depression would appear seemingly out of nowhere, and even though they were bittersweet and heart-wrenching, Duo Maxwell, along with everyone else, were thankful for something. Anything other than the vacant expression she had worn for so long. Relena's quarters were located in various countries around the globe, but she seemed to have a particular interest in an isolated location in Australia. The vast dry and desert regions were a thing to be reckoned with daily, but several weeks ago there had been an unparalleled amount of rainfall in the area she had been staying in. On the days that it would rain she would attempt to brave the outside world, short bouts at a time of course, and face the monster of human selfishness in small doses. Duo Maxwell was her constant companion, avoiding the turmoil of his own life at home to try and salvage what he could of Relena's existence.

The following weeks transpired in a series of violent protests across the globe. Elliot Benja's proposal was widely protested, and yet also supported by a large number of the population. But not enough of the population to have it surpassed, as of yet. In an attempt to try and quell society's fears the ESUN Government had issued standard military gas masks to every household. Protestors came up with reasons against the aforementioned camps, now dubbed Fertility Camps, claiming among their arguments and persuasions that humanity should "just let nature run its course". Human cloning was being studied on a world-wide scale, scientists from among Russia, China, Japan, the United States and, oddly enough, Colony X18997. They had yet to have a successful trial but their studies were examined closely while people looked on with wary eyes.

Meanwhile, Preventor Une and her entire Bureau of Preventors, along with her Special Ops team, uncovered the inner workings of Elliot Benja at a grinding rate. Wufei Chang and Sally Po were partnered together as moles in Elliot Benja's manufacturing company, but nothing had yet been discovered until two weeks after Relena Peacecraft's incline. While Wufei actually worked inside the company, Sally was deep into the security and health disctricts. It was whenever she was going through a routine scan of the grounds that she discovered a blueprint of one of the fertility camps and a signed and approved seal of approval from several of the delegates. It was only to be a trial, to see if it was possible to house that many children and not let any un-filtered air into the base. There were to be 40 young girls from families who would volunteer.

"I said no."

"Come _on_ Mom. You know that I'm the perfect candidate for this! How many other children do you know of who could politically disfigure a 55 year old member of the senate by the age of 8, huh?" Mariemeia stomped her foot on the ground in an uncharacteristic show of frustration, Lady Une sitting idly and patiently across from her on a lush recliner inside their mansion. Une had taken her in as soon as she had a full recovery after the Coup D'Etat.

Une sighed and put down the paper she had been reading, taking her reading glasses off and then rubbing the bridge of her nose. She knew that Mariemeia was right, but had refused the idea of sending her in undercover when the Special Ops team had brought it to her attention. It was only whenever Trowa Barton had spoken to her in the quiet, to-the-point way that was definably him that she had begun to consider it. But then the idea of her sneaking around on such dangerous grounds, her growing suspicion of Elliot Benja nagging in the back of her mind, sent her riveting back into a state of clear refusal.

"No! I will not send you into some watered-down version of a concentration camp. Who knows what they could do to you there, especially if you get caught."

Mariemeia's face turned a shade of red and she began to fume, but then she took a deep breath and sighed, sitting down at who she now considered her mother's feet.

"Mom, I could start anytime now. I want to be able to have children one day. Now, I know that's not why I'd be going into the camp, but it's important to me. And I know that I can do this. I know that I can uncover some of what they're doing there, and I can get some major dirt on that Benja guy."

Une rolled her eyes. "_That Benja guy_ is the new Vice Foreign Minister and he could have you killed on grounds of treachery if you're discovered."

"Not if I'm a minooor…" she sing-songed.

She sighed and stared at Mariemeia's face, her red hair falling around her shoulders and blue eyes staring up at her curiously. She was all that Une had in the world. If something were to happen to her…but then again, she couldn't keep her here forever. Mariemeia was always meant for great things. She was meant to make a difference.

--

He saw her as he was going through a routine check of the city outside of the underground base. He had trained to his full limit that day and was slightly exhausted, so he had taken his time walking back to the base. His eyes caught everything, his ears heard _everything_, and so having his focus drawn to one person out of sheer reaction was something he was not expecting. She was wearing a bright yellow dress, and her blonde hair was pulled back in a series of lazy curls framing her high cheekbones and sharp jawline. She smiled at something a man with a long braid and big, humored eyes said. He touched her hand and held her gaze for a moment as they lowered their voices, but even at the 30 or so feet away from them that he was he could hear what they were saying without even trying to zone in on them.

"I'm so proud of how far you've come. I'd almost given up, but I knew that you were strong. Stronger than the rest of us."

She blushed and gave him a lop-sided smile, absentmindedly rubbing her thumb across the top of his hand. An odd feeling ebbed away at the pit of his stomach, but he ignored it and continued watching as the couple spoke in quiet tones, staring at one another as if they were the only thing keeping the other sane.

"You mean so much to me Duo." He paused, noting that the name sounded vaguely familiar. "…you're my best friend. If it hadn't been for you, I'd probably still be stuck in that psyche ward wasting away…"

Duo snorted and pulled his hand away to reach behind him and tighten the ponytail at the bottom of his braid. "Ah, come on Princess. Don't give me all the credit. You brought yourself out of that hell."

She laughed. "Well, praying did help, believe it or not."

He smiled charmingly. "Of course it did."

He slid out from beneath the small space he was hiding in between two buildings and made his way closer to her, snaking along so as to not attract much attention. He was halfway to her when he realized that she kept turning back and looking behind her, as if she knew he was there. Duo looked curiously behind her too after she had done it two or three times.

"…something wrong Relena?"

The moment he heard her name a memory flashed in his mind's eye.

__

The same girl watching him with distressed eyes as he pointed his weapon at a small child and pulled the trigger. It was blank.

"I will never kill anyone…ever again…I don't have to, anymore…"

His body gave way and he fell to the ground. A flash of golden hair swept in front of him and he was suddenly cradled in two small arms, her fingers running through his hair as she fell with him. Then there was nothing but heat and breath and the sound of her sure, steady heartbeat.

Relena was looking straight at him now with a look of sudden fascination. She was saying something, but his mind was so clouded and confused from several recollections passing through his mind at once that he was unable to concentrate on what she was saying. When he didn't respond to her she started towards him and he jerked backwards, shaking his head to try and clear his mind. She reacted with a hurt expression, her brow knitted together in confusion. Duo stood behind her and grabbed her shoulder, focusing on her face. When she pointed at him Duo looked his way, and he ducked quickly back behind the alleyway.

__

"…did you see?"

"What? See what?"

He peeked around the corner and saw that Relena was now lying on the ground, clutching her shirt above her chest and gasping for air. Duo was above her holding her hand and speaking into his cell phone frantically. A crowd of people had gathered around, but even through the crowd he could see her straining her neck to look at him upside down.

"Heero…"

He started in surprise and started backing away, tripping over something in the street. He stumbled backwards and then took off in a dash, clenching his fists at his sides. Why couldn't he remember?

After he had made it safely out of the city he tried to concentrate on his mission, but could not think of anything but the girl with ocean eyes and long hair of sunshine staring at him like he was…like she needed him. He growled underneath his breath and tried to pace around and cool off, but memories kept breaking through in bits and pieces. She had said his name in a way that sent his pulse racing, and then need to go back there and make sure she was alright was driving him insane. He could see her eyes pleading with him to stay, to come back to her.

Heero. Heero.

Heero…

He heard footsteps as he made his way back to his quarters and turned to find Doctor Patrenko staring at him cautiously. He motioned for him to get on the operating table and he did so obligingly, lying still as the doctor tied the familiar restraints.

"How did it go?"

"I trained as you instructed. There was a girl…"

He closed his eyes as the doctor inserted the needle and withdrew the blood, thankful for something familiar.

--

When Heero Yuy awoke several hours later, he didn't remember the girl with the smile that awoke something inside of him and sent him reeling. He didn't remember that pang of jealousy he felt when she touched the man with the long braid's hand. He didn't remember the way she said his name and brought every kind of feeling of ecstasy to the surface of his skin, hot with desire and longing and loneliness that broke through the walls within him.

He didn't remember anything at all.


	4. Chapter Three

****

Surely as the Sun

Chapter Three

AN: I don't own Gundam Wing. This is rated PG-13.

Her fingers flailed across the ivory keys of the sleek black grand piano, some resemblance of a symphony she was concocting in her mind the only evidence that the piece was not something she had been working on for a while. It was, quite simply, raw emotion. She was playing what she felt and there was no other way to describe it. It did not matter, as no one else was in the room at the moment, and her rather simple regard for the way she allowed herself to indulge in music could not be hindered by the judgments and calculations of anyone else.

On the right side of the piano she hit two notes steadily while allowing the base of her left hand fingers to play intricately along the lower notes, not once pausing while a medley of power and strength and war within itself was being dispersed all along the vibrating chords from deep within the wooden and metal workings of the monstrous instrument. She did not sway and roll about as most accomplished musicians did. The only movements were within her arms and hands themselves, the pads of her fingertips grasping diligently along the many glossy keys that gave slightly under light pressure and banged harshly when she chose to play loudly or during a crescendo.

The back and forth motions of her hands continued in this rhythm for several minutes. As time wore on, so did she, grimacing and biting her lower lip as the tiring motions of playing the piece took effect on the over-exerted muscles in her arms and the joints in fingers. Sweat formed on her brow, and as her pulse rate sped up, so did the rhythm of her music. She quickly grew frustrated with herself and slowed the music as she caught her breath, staring absentmindedly through the glass windows inside her grand ballroom to the dark blue night sky.

A quick knock on the door followed by quiet footsteps made her pause only for a moment, and during this short refrain she switched her method of playing to quietly fiddling with the keys. She played softly and sweetly while seemingly not paying attention to what she was doing as she looked up at Wufei and Sally entering through the columns of the doorway. She smiled genuinely at them, and Wufei nodded in return while Sally looked precariously at her slightly trembling hands.

Relena followed her gaze and abruptly stopped playing, gently shutting the black cover of the piano and shifting so that she faced them directly, folding her hands in her lap. The eerie sound of her last diminished chord still hung in the air. She hadn't planned on it to sound like that. It just ended up that way.

"Hello Relena. What have you been up to?"

Relena looked at Sally and took a deep breath, blushing slightly at being caught over-exerting herself. She had been given strict orders to not, under any circumstances, do any kind of activity that would cause any kind of strain to her respiratory system. But she just couldn't stand being cooped up all day!

"Just practicing."

Sally lifted an eyebrow and Wufei coughed before practically shoving a brown folder into her hand.

"This is our report. Apparently Elliot Benja has been attempting to undermine your credibility among _other_ discussions of the delegate conferences. I guess that shuttle carrying enough seed to feed an entire colony losing power in mid space-travel wasn't a big enough issue. He's been having trouble with Representative Whitney."

Relena smiled, knowing that Tyler Whitney had been a dear friend to her during her years as Vice Foreign Minister. He had been one of her lead supporters of the Terra-Formation project and one of the lasting associates to complete Pacifism.

"We've also noted that the research portion of the site has been ordering prescription doses of Cannabis and Ketamine, among other drugs. Now, what exactly those have to do with Ethanol from corn crops is beyond me, but it's a highly confidential project. Sally happened upon it when she was running a scan of the budget branch and spent three hours cracking the system to open it. We've finally got a lead on something, but we can't jump on this. We need to get in – we need to get them to trust us. There's no reason for them to now. We're just a couple of factory workers to them."

She nodded and looked down at the report. Pictures of the base were scattered throughout, along with blueprints and random captures. She sifted through them sporadically. The cafeteria, the chemical room where the Ethanol was extracted, the corn crops being cultivated, and a lounge area were all pictured at different angles. She reached the medical lab and paused, noting a doctor who looked vaguely familiar. Sally was pictured carrying test tubes to the tall man with a lab coat on who held his clipboard in one hand at his side.

"Sally, who is this?"

Sally leaned over the report and quirked an eyebrow.

"Alexei Patrenko. You should know him. You hired him when you inherited PD Enterprises. He's one of the less involved researchers – he stays holed up in the medical lab for most of the day."

"You don't think he has anything to do - "

"I'll look into it." Wufei cut her off, gathering his black messenger bag and several large brown folders. "I've been wary of him since I ran into him one day blasting through the medical doors with a stretcher. He had all kinds of surgical tools on it, but what caught my attention were the leather restraints. They had been ripped in half. I had expected to see medical supplies because the workers are constantly getting hurt around the machinery, but that made me wonder. He was sweating like crazy and when I asked him if he needed any help he told me to get out of his way and stay in my own department."

"We need to find a way to get you into that department." She mumbled. "Any news on Heero?"

Sally's gaze softened and she stared sympathetically. She hated that look..

"No. Not yet. How is your recovery?"

She let out a shaky breath, absentmindedly rubbing the brunt of her hand just below the left of her collarbone. She had somehow through the process of her breakdown developed a case of asthma. It wasn't particularly bad, except when she thought of Heero. It was strange the effect he still had on her after all this time, in all of their silent and dangerous pasts. He was more her friend than anything. After he had declared he would never kill again and recovered in the hospital, Heero had offered his assistance to Commander Une in Preventors, which he was immediately hired into. He was assigned to Relena's protection, but not specifically. There were times he would be gone for months, but she was never briefed on what for. She could not attempt to hold him down when his guilt condemned him to an existence built on making up for the lives he'd taken. Well, he called it guilt. She called it redemption.

"Relena?"

Relena shook her head. Sally smiled awkwardly, her eyes searching. Relena knew what that meant.

"I'm not crazy Sally. I saw him."

Wufei snorted behind her. Sally stood up to leave, glaring at Wufei who muttered something under his breath.

"I'll let you know if we find anything else out. Une told us to report back to her once we told you what we knew to discuss our next course of action. Apparently, she's volunteered Mariemeia into the camp on X18997. They're shutting the entire colony power down in an attempt to disperse the already contaminated oxygen and reinserting filtered air when they're ready. Take care of yourself."

When they left she waited and listened to them argue in fierce whispers, smiling to herself. When she heard them drive off the lot she turned to the piano once more and lifted the hood, pondering whether or not she had seen Heero, or wanted to see him bad enough that she made herself see him.

She liked to think that if she had just been imagining it, she wouldn't have dreamed him looking at her as if he were looking at her for the first time.

--

Despite his ever-growing need to placate people, Quatre Winner was tempted to strangle every last one of the oh-so-painfully researched and scrutinized "qualified" council members. The Winner heir had been one of the lead players in the council decisions up until this point and he would see himself stabbed again before he let them veto the vote to allow Relena Dorlian entrance back into Parliament. She was clearly on the way to recovery, and based on the way the general public was reacting to Elliot Benja's Fertility Camp idea, it wouldn't be a long shot in guessing who they would vote for. Even if some of the public still believed Relena had a hand in the release of the chemical, no one could undermine her aptitude in politics. There was no one to compare her to in ideas of pacifism alone, let alone in politics. Well, maybe in politics, but _she _would never go back…

"Quatre Winner."

The glass of water he had held to his lips swirled and spilled down the side of his hand as he choked on a big gulp, spinning around with wide eyes and facing the absolute last person he expected to see right then.

Dorothy Catalonia.

She had her mouth pursed and let a small grin escape, revealing dimples and a fiery look in her eyes. She stood in the doorway of his office in a black pencil skirt and white silk shirt, pearl earrings adorning her face as her bright blue eyes stared at him in a way that made him take another swallow of his water. Even though he was still slightly choking. He wiped his mouth and made his way over to her, reaching for her hand. He left it open there for her to shake and her eyes darted to it for a moment before she chuckled.

"Come now, Quatre, no need for such formalities when we go…so far back." She purred, walking past him and letting her side slightly graze his, her long blonde hair whipping across his chest. The touch stunned him for a moment and he stared straight ahead before taking a deep breath and turning around to once again face her. She had made her way over to the glass windows, which pretty much made up what could be called the walls of his office. Below them showed the expanse of upper Manhattan, the business portion of the city not much to look at. The impoverished had taken to living out in the streets since the economic crash, and along with that came dirt and trash and grime. Before, it was normal to see one or two drunken bums living on a sidewalk. It wasn't normal to see 3 or 4 families huddled around trash cans.

He walked to her side and started to say something but paused when he saw the look on her face. Slightly angry, she stared at the streets below and the smoky, clouded air of Manhattan that was so thick it was almost tangible. Her brow was knitted, but Quatre didn't need any more expression than the one she bore in her eyes: fury. Not the kind she was so prone to before the Eve Wars, but one born out of pain for others. She tapped her manicured fingernails against the glass and pressed her forehead to it, closing her angry eyes. After a moment, he reached and lay his hand upon the small of her back.

"Dorothy?"

She opened her eyes and smiled, still staring out the window.

"Do you believe in God, Quatre?"

He paused, confused by the turn in their conversation. She was the weirdest woman…

"I like to." He said, dropping his hand as she turned to face him. He noted for the first time that she held a manila file with FOUO printed plainly in red across the tab.

"Hmm…" she cocked her head towards the window. "…do you think those people down there do?"

"I don't know…Dorothy, what is this about?"

She "tsked" and placed her hands on her narrow hips, obviously enjoying the impression it made on him. Trying to force information by prodding her was something he knew would be futile to even attempt, so he resigned himself to sitting at his desk and waiting on her to say whatever it was she was trying to. She noted his expression quietly and pushed the file across the desktop towards him, perching herself quickly on the edge. She crossed her long, slender legs and opened the file, revealing several military-style blueprints and receipts, along with a few scattered pictures and letters. She pulled out a small memory disk from the side flap and handed it to him. When he had inserted the disk into his computer and brought the video sequence up, she grabbed his mouse and started fast forwarding the footage.

"Do you think Heero Yuy believed in God?"

"Uh…" He mumbled under his breath as he stared at the video. There were several hours of what was obviously a street camera videotaping near a liquor store and a red light. When it reached nightfall she began to fast forward more slowly. "…I…doubt it…why?" When it reached 3:26AM she stopped forwarding the video and let it play. There was a storm, and it was pitch black so he couldn't see anything except for the bright glow of the green to yellow to red of the red light. Lightning struck once and she stopped the video. She looked down at him and smiled as he looked at her in confusion. She hit rewind for a second then played the video once again. As the lightning struck she hit pause and pointed at a shadow in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

"Look closely."

His eyes narrowed as he focused on that one point and blew up the picture. His eyes widened as he took in the silhouette of brown unruly hair, a long and lean frame moving so quickly that he hadn't even caught that there was something there the first time. But he knew that fighting style. He knew those tactics.

"Heero…"

Dorothy cupped his chin in her hand and turned his face to look at her, grinning madly.

"I have a proposal."

--

The barely audible thud awoke her before they had ever reached her room. Before they ever twisted the doorknob, or slowly shut the door behind them, or made their way to her bed. The moment her eyes opened she knew someone had managed to climb through the vent shaft in her hallway and come out right overhead, and she had been ready.

Oh, had she been ready.

She gripped the hatchet tighter in her right hand, her bare feet freezing in the chill night air. She had rolled off and under her bed in one fluid motion, and as she sprawled herself out onto her belly, she cursed herself for having to choose a thin gown to wear to bed tonight. And for ever thinking that marble would look "pretty and sophisticated" as her bedroom flooring.

Two slender legs padded their way across the floor and paused right in front of her vision. She heard a masculine snarl, almost vindictive, as her would-be kidnapper picked up the photos on her bedside table.

"She's not here."

Relena slid as quietly as she could to the edge of the bed, grimacing as the chill marble burned through her gown into her skin.

"I said she's not here, Zechs. She must have – sweet Lord!"

Relena didn't have time to process what exactly he said as she whipped the hatchet around, aimed at the man's calf. He jumped, but the sound of metal slicing flesh was still heard, along with a spray of blood. He started howling the moment it happened, and she grinned with unaccustomed satisfaction. He had saved himself from losing his foot, but he would have a gash there. Hopefully deep enough that he couldn't stand. Pacifism be danged.

She quickly shimmied her way from underneath the bed and violently jerked the hatchet free from where it had embedded itself into the wall. She whirled around and made a bee line for him, but promptly let the hatchet fall from her hands as he started screaming like a little girl.

"You didn't say she had a hatchet, ya friggin idiot! She almost made me a midget!"

"…Duo?"

He snapped to attention, his eyes slitting as pure venom seethed from his mouth. She took a step back as a crooked finger pointed in her direction, condemnation she was certainly not used to.

"_You_."

Forgetting that Duo had just attempted to kidnap her, she ran to his side and reached for his leg. At which point he promptly slapped her hand away and scooted in the other direction.

"Don't touch me!"

"Oh come on Duo, don't be such a baby. I just want to look – "

"I'm panicking. This is me. Panicking. Relena, don't touch. I'm so freaking serious…"

"I just want to see how deep it went. Now MOVE."

"I don't want your help. I said…no. No-o-o…" He mouthed slowly. Relena ignored him, but as she began to pull his pant leg up she was suddenly hefted up and layed flat on her back, Duo pinning her arms against the floor by her wrists and strattling her with his lower half.

They heard a cough in the doorway and both eyes shot up at the same time. Zechs stood in the entrance with his hand holding the doorknob in a death grip, while Trowa leaned against the panel with one arched eyebrow.

"I sent you in here to do a simple trial run, and you end up doing…whatever it is you're doing…on the bedroom floor with my sister!"

Duo jumped up and stumbled backwards, scratching his head.

"No, Zechs, listen…"

"A trial run? Milliardo, what is going on?"

"We were just trying to see how you could handle yourself, Relena…"

"…so I reach over to pull back the sheets and there's a hatchet. A _hatchet_, Zechs…"

"A trial run? _A trial run_?!"

"HATCH-ET…"

Trowa quietly slipped from his space in the doorway and grabbed Duo by the shoulder, guiding him towards the door.

"We should probably get going, Zechs. Duo needs to get this stitched up." He glanced back at Relena. "Good job. You passed."

--

Hilde twirled her spoon around in her hot chocolate, staring blindly at the clock in the kitchen. It read 12:45AM, and she couldn't sleep. Duo wasn't home, and she wondered out loud why she ever bothered thinking about why anymore. She couldn't remember the feel of his skin under her fingertips, or the way he tasted when he kissed her. They had not slept together since the miscarriage, and she was inclined to think that that was the reason in the beginning. But she only used that as an excuse for herself. Did she love him anymore? She couldn't remember why she began to in the first place.

He made her smile. She knew that much. Or, at least, he used to.

The sound of keys jingling in the doorway brought her out of her silent reverie, and Duo came gliding quietly into the house. His trained eyes caught her at once, and he stared at her curiously for a moment before making his way to stand in front of her at the kitchen table. It was only when he walked over to her that she noticed the slight hitch he had in his step.

"What happened?"

"What? Oh…" he pulled his black pant leg up, revealing white bandages with a small red stain in the center. "…I was doing a trial run in Relena's bedroom and things got kind of out of control."

"Is that what you're calling it now? A trial run?" She said sarcastically, picking up her half-empty cup and tossing it into the sink.

"What? No, Hilde, listen…"

"I don't care. It doesn't matter now, anyway. You don't want me anymore, you've made that obvious…"

"_I_ don't want _you_? Hilde, what are you talking about? You're the only one that I want. Why can't you see that? You're the one who's been pushing…"

"Don't lie to me!" She spat out, wrenching out a cabinet drawer and roughly pulling out a stack of papers. She slammed them down on the table in front of him and he glared at her beneath his dark eyelashes, quelled anger slowly rising beneath the violet depths. "This is what you want. I know it is. Leave me alone and find someone who can…" her voice broke. He stared down at the papers, the legality not capturing his attention. The only word on the page that he could stare at was "divorce".

"…find someone who can give you what you wanted…"

He suddenly grabbed the side of the table and sent it crashing across the kitchen, the papers flying everywhere. She jumped slightly but began backing away as he came stomping toward her, his hands clenched at his sides. When her back met the wall and she could move no further, a fleeting thought came into her mind that she had just sentenced herself to this sort of punishment before his hands dug into the back of her hair and he jerked her body suffocatingly close to his.

"_You_ were what I wanted." He said between clenched teeth, staring down at her face with pain in his eyes. "You are still everything I've ever wanted…" He ground out, before crushing his mouth against hers. A cry started in her throat but only made it halfway before she gave in, sinking into his arms. He fell to the floor with her and she landed on top of him. She reached under his shirt and slowly spread her hands across the expanse of his stomach and chest. He shuddered quietly underneath her, running his hands through her dark hair as their breathing quickened. She whispered sweet things into his ear, and a low growl issued deep within his throat before he pulled her into his arms and carried her into the bedroom.

For Official Use Only


	5. Chapter Four

**Surely as the Sun**

Chapter Four

This is rated PG-13.

"_Beauty is life when life unveils her holy face._

_But you are life and you are the veil._

_Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror._

_But you are eternity and you are the mirror. "_

Kahlil Gibran, _The Prophet_

Duo awoke to the smell of lavender, Hilde's glossy black hair muffled into his face. He had slept breathing her in. She lay next to him now, the entirety of her back anatomy pressed into the front of his as his left arm draped across her ribs and waist. He stared at the side of her face as she slept quietly next to him, her chest rising and falling with even breaths, the tips of her long lashes grazing the pale skin under her eyes. She was small and skinny, but strong. And she fit his slender and somewhat tall frame none the less.

Last night had been so unexpected. The light painkillers Sally had sent him home on had made his reasoning slightly inhibited, and he was intent on going straight to the bed to go to sleep when he saw her in the kitchen. Duo was not certain where their marriage was heading…he loved Hilde more than life itself, and he tried showing her that, but she would not understand him. The loss of their baby had put a stunt in their growth. They could not move forward, could not move past it. He wanted to, tried to. But she seemed filled with apathy. Until last night.

He subconsciously tightened his hold on her, and she mumbled something in her sleep. He dipped his face into the crook of her neck and inhaled deeply, lightly pressing his lips to the flesh there. Goosebumps arose on her neck and he closed his eyes and grinned, for once in his life not using it to hide something.

The fact was, she had issued forth divorce papers, and he could not expect one night to change everything. Her mind was so fragile now, and perhaps he should not have taken advantage of her in such a fragile state…but the way she had cried out his name last night had caused him to hope again. He had been praying for a miracle…asking God to help her love him again. Up until then he had been answered with silence.

Now, he was more confused than ever. What if she was angry when she woke up? What if she never learned how to move past the horrible things that had happened to them? What if she decided to stay married, but was miserable for the rest of her life? He had seen Hilde so bruised and broken physically, he seriously doubted she was going to live. During the war, he had seen that. He had been angry, and it was then that she had wrapped her pretty arms around his heart and torn it right out of chest, demanding that he love her whether he chose to or not. She had brought to life a part of himself he thought had died so long ago, when he was a child. She was strong. She could pull through any sort of physical pain. But this devastation…it seemed to have killed her on the inside to know that she could not ever have children, to think that she had been considering abortion.

It was time he saved her. She had been saving him all this time, and she no longer had the strength to hold both of them up. He would be strong for her. He would love her until it consumed him. Until it consumed them both.

--

Mariemeia stood in the center of a humongous amphitheatre, the slick wooden floor glaring under her feet from the shining chandeliers that adorned the entire ceiling of the building. She stared down at her file, the front page a map of the entire campus. In front of her students were chattering loudly in their seats that faced the stage, all of them with high pitched voices and giggling madly. All girls. All estrogen. Pink assaulted her vision as they went back and forth to gossip among their friends.

She was going to be sick.

She glanced once more at the highlighted section of the amphitheatre map, her seat smack dab in the front center of the building. She rolled her eyes at Une's overprotective strategies meant to seem inconspicuous to her but not to anyone else in Preventors. She was smarter than most of them, anyway. Behind her, the huge doors began to creak as they were closed by the principle and…Trowa?

She glared at him and he, as if feeling her anger, turned and looked right at her. If she hadn't spent so much time with him as her bodyguard she wouldn't have noticed the grin that he allowed to grace his mouth for about .032 of a second. She placed one hand on her hip and shook her head at him, at which point he turned back around and ignored her completely. Taking his cue to not let anyone know they knew each other, she turned around quickly to make her way to her seat but failed to see the black high heeled shoe in her pathway until it was too late. Her papers flew out of her hands as she went careening towards the floor, and as she scrambled to try and brace herself for the impact of wood with skinned knees and elbows, she was saved by a pair of strong arms around her waist. Her face smashed into a hard chest and her hands grabbed hold of two broad shoulders as someone held her up, her legs wobbling beneath her.

She faintly heard giggling in the back of her mind, and she turned her head to look behind her and see who exactly had a bloody nose coming to them but was stopped as she saw a pair of big brown eyes staring down at her. Dark hair framed his tanned face, and he smiled unsurely down at her.

"Are you alright?"

She mumbled some kind of affirmation to him as she tried to find her feet, a blush rising to her cheeks. It deepened as she turned around to pick up her things but realized his hands were still placed loosely on her hips. He seemed to realize this and laughed, his hands finally coming off of her and running through his hair nervously. She bent down to pick up her things and heard, for the first time, the most annoying voice she had ever heard in her life.

"Really, Kale, I don't understand why you have to be the hero for every damsel in distress here. It's not like you have competition."

It sounded like Miss Piggy on sedatives. As she stood up she recognized the same black heels connected to a pair of tanned, slender legs that came up to a petit frame wrapped in some kind of pink fluorescent…tarp. Well, it looked like a tarp on her. Big blonde hair framed an equally tanned face and the girl looked like something out of a Disney movie. She glared at Mariemeia, her swarm of friends spreading out on either side of her, looking like a massive pink tsunami.

"Chill out Jodi. What's your name, anyway?"

She turned to look at him.

"Meia. I thought this camp was only for girls?"

"It is. I don't actually come here for school – I do a lot of the building and jobs the girls can't do around here. Plus, my dad is one of the teachers, so I live here with him. Are you from the colonies?"

"I, um, yeah…well, sort of…"

"Why are we wasting our time here? Let's go check out the stage, Kale. The new girl obviously doesn't know how to speak correct English…"

Mariemeia whirled around. "Listen up, Barbie, we can go ahead and sort this out right here just so we can conclude that the new girl doesn't put up with your _limited_ vocabulary of outdated insults."

It seemed like all conversation in the entire amphitheatre came to a stand still, and the girls in front of her stared at one another nervously as Jodi's mouth fell open.

"No? Nothing? Can't come up with anything for the new girl? Which, by the way, we're _all_ new girls here, genius." She heard Kale snort behind her and turned to face him when she realized the dumbfounded look on Jodi's face wasn't coming off anytime soon. " I guess I'll just leave you to your…gossiping about makeup and clothes and…nail polish, or whatever. It was nice to meet you, Kale." She said, before casually strolling off to her dorm.

--

"Commander Une."

"I need a few minutes alone with these two, Jane."

"I know, but…"

Une ignored her with the turn of her head, walking at her unusually fast pace through the building of Preventors. When she reached her office she pushed open the door and resisted the urge to roll her eyes when Jane, her ever-faithful secretary of five years now, followed her in. Normally she wouldn't have been so annoyed by her except that in this case, Wufei and Sally were sitting in her office chairs with a report they explained to her in a very brief conversation through their wired mics she would be "very interested in receiving" not but an hour ago.

"Alright. You have five minutes. Go."

Wufei stood and handed a file over to her, the picture inside of Alexei Patrenko.

"We have an in." He said, grinning at her. Une barely constrained the urge to throw her hands around his neck and settled for a smile herself. Sally took a step back and pulled out a wired camera within her factory uniform. She clicked it on, and immediately a holographic vid comm lit up wherever he pointed the camera. Sally shut off the lights as she focused the camera against the wall. She fast forwarded through several hours of her simply working in the ethanol extraction sight, before she slowed down. The camera was focused on the corn husks and Sally's gloved hands as she stripped them, but the screen suddenly shook as something rammed into Sally and sent her crashing into the ground.

When Sally turned around and faced the intruder, the last thing Une expected to see was Alexei Patrenko screaming at her with blood all over his white doctor's coat. Sally stayed still for a moment in shock as Alexei started barking orders at her, not even waiting to see if Sally was following him as he turned around and took off towards the medical lab. Sally ran after him as Alexei started punching in codes to the vaulted doors, the pattern clearly legible.

"Get someone on recording that code." Une mumbled to Jane, who stood transfixed by the doorway.

"Commander, I really think you'll want - "

"_Shh!_"

Sally raised the volume as the camera entered inside the medical lab. She followed the doctor through several hallways, each filled with doorways that required more codes to get in to. Doctor Patrenko was nervously racing through the halls, his bloody hands typing codes into a very large vaulted door when he reached the end of the hallway. Condensation fogged up the glass of the camera, but as it began to clear away, she was able to catch a glimpse of Elliot Benja layed out on a stretcher, blood pooling around the floor. The doctor, as if realizing something, stood in front of Sally with a stern look on his face. Almost desperate.

"What you see here must be kept confidential. I chose you to help as a last resort, because you were the first person I ran in to with any substantial medical background, but if you can help me and keep this a secret, I can guarantee you a very large salary raise. If we have an understanding." He said, stuffing a wad of money into Sally's pocket. Sally nodded a confirmation and set to work on Elliot, but jumped back when something crashed into one of the bullet-proof containment areas connected to the medical lab. When she turned to face the source of the sound, Une's stomach dropped.

The glass cracked as Heero Yuy wailed against it. His eyes were wild, almost primitive, and he was screaming inside the chamber. No recognition dawned in his eyes as he saw her. In fact, her mere presence seemed to make him angrier as he paused to take her in. When he looked and saw Alexei he started pounding even harder against the glass. He was terrifying.

"We have to get him out of here, now!" Alexei barked at her, and she jumped to attention. She grabbed hold of every IV and any other wire connected to Elliot Benja's body as Alexei started pushing the stretcher out of the room. As they reached the door, the glass shattered, and the last thing seen on the camera was Heero climbing over the glass module as Alexei slammed the vaulted doors shut.

Wufei flipped the lights back on and Une turned to face Sally, her arms folded across her chest. Sally stared blankly back at her.

"_Well_?" She barked, and Jane squealed in the corner.

"There's nothing else." Sally said, slipping the camera back into her jacket. "I helped him get Elliot stabilized, and he sent me home. He wouldn't give me any information about what happened, and I couldn't let on that I recognized Heero, so…I just come back in tomorrow morning to act as Elliot's nurse. I'm not even sure what they did with Heero after I left."

"Well what is he doing there?" She yelled, and Sally winced. Leaning against the wall, Wufei eyes her precariously and nodded towards Jane, who had backed into the corner. When Une turned around quickly to face her, the stack of files and cell phone she held in her hand fell to the ground, and she scrambled to pick them up. Une walked over to her and placed her hands on her hips, tapping her heeled shoes impatiently against the floor.

"Jane. Was there something you wanted to tell me?"

"You have a c-call…from Mr. Winner, he says it's an emergency…"

Une sighed and snatched the phone off the ground. "Quatre? Yes, it's me. What…what? Quatre, this had _better_ be an emergency, or so help me…fine."

Une flipped a TV on in the corner of the room and turned to the news channel. The phone clattered to the ground as the news anchor's voice broke out in near hysterics.

"Oh my God."

--

Relena and Duo walked the streets slowly, talking to one another in hushed tones as the people around them went about their days in torrid motion. People now didn't stop to enjoy things anymore – they couldn't. There was no point to life, since it would all end with their generation more than likely, and surviving claimed all occupancy of their minds. But Relena had learned to live again, to hope, even though that hope was fragile. Duo simply loved her enough to allow the agony of her belief in it, and found himself believing in it as he told her what had happened the night before.

"That's wonderful, Duo. I know that you are probably very confused, and I'm sure she is too, but you have both got to learn to let this go. There is no point in dwelling over things that are too far gone. Love…well, it never fails. It can't. It…"

They both stopped mid-stride and Duo felt the familiar adrenaline rush begin as Relena started to hyperventilate. She reached up to her chest and started breathing quickly as she stared at something in the distance. He reached for his phone, but her hand reached out and grasped his as she shuttered out an "I'm fine" to him, then pointed in the other direction.

He turned to look and would have not seen anything had his eyes not been so trained. In the alley behind the same restaurant they were in before, he saw Heero embracing a woman. His back was to them, and by the looks of things they were getting it on right there as her arms clawed at his back and he dipped his face down to hers, her legs lifting and wrapping around his hips. Relena whispered his name softly, and somehow, he knew. He turned his face to look at her and his eyes grew dangerous, calculating both of them. Duo took a step toward them, but came to a dead stand still as he saw Hilde across the street, striding toward him with a smile on her face.

He motioned for her to stop and she paused in her walk, realizing too late that she had already stepped out onto the road. A biker came speeding by and clipped her right there on the corner, and Duo watched in horror as she somersaulted across the road from the force of the blow and landed face down several yards away. Relena's scream registered in his mind, but he choked on his voice and his eyes started to burn. He lost all coherent thought as his body rushed of its own accord toward her, reaching down and pulling her into his arms. He pulled his hand away from the back of her head and it came back smeared with blood.

--

Heero crushed the woman to his chest as a cry gurgled forth out of her throat. He felt several bones cracking within his hold on her and sucked in his breath as he tightened his hold around her once more. He heard someone say his name and snapped his face around to see who had discovered him. Across the street, he saw them both. Recognition flitted across his mind for a moment but then he forgot what it was he had remembered, and when he was satisfied the woman had stopped breathing, he let her fall and slide down to the ground, lifeless.

She had been sent to kill him. He had accomplished his mission, and it was time to go back

--

.

When Duo reached the hospital, the paramedics wouldn't let him see her. He screamed at them and threatened to kill them if they didn't let him back there, and Relena, surprisingly, was doing the same thing. Zechs and Noin had gathered in the waiting room, as well as Quatre and Dorothy, silent and red-eyed.

He noticed the photographers after about two hours of pacing back and forth. They had crowded around the hospital, and the doctors motioned for him to come in before things got out of hand. He had expected to see Hilde, but was met with a bright, smiling face of the surgeon.

"Tell me what is going on. Why can't I see my wife? And why are there news vans parked outside? Let me see her!"

"Mr. Maxwell, please. Your wife is in very fragile condition and we will let you see her as soon as she is stabilized. Mr. Maxwell, we ran some tests…"

"My name is Duo. What is wrong with her? Is she going to be alright?"

"Her injuries were very severe, but we believe she will survive. You need to be made aware of something, however."

A thousand thoughts flew through his mind. Had she been without oxygen for too long? Was she paralyzed? Was she…

"Duo. Mr. Maxwell. Hello?" The doctor waved his hand in front of his face worriedly, and Duo snapped out of his trance and glared at him.

"Your wife is pregnant."


	6. Chapter Five

AN: Wow! This chapter took forever! My courses are trying to kill me!

Sorry it took so long! Thanks to all my reviewers! You guys are AWESOME!

I think I've officially used up my limit for exclamation points for the day! My bad!

...and I'm still doing it!

This is rated PG-13.

**Surely as the Sun**

Chapter Five

The metallic scent of blood hung in the air like dust billowing from the earth, the gray, chalky ground of his cage giving way to irritation within his lungs. This room – he had seen it many times before, but could not understand why he had been here all of this time. He sat crouched against the wall, slumped against his hind legs with his hands hanging limply over his knees. The perfect picture of meditation, and yet…

He glanced quickly at the door, denoting a noise he knew from experience he should not be able to hear, and yet could. How long he had been a human pin cushion for these scientists he did not know, but the number of puncture wounds along his lower abdomen and pelvis gave rise to the confirmation of recollections within his mind. The reason it had taken him so long to remember anything was unknown to him, but on the last performance testing, he had seen her, and remembered.

He had come back here for answers.

The noise he heard moments before repeated itself, and a woman walked into the lab with a stretcher. She eyed him cautiously as he sat unfazed in the corner, two braids adorning the sides of her face. She had large, blue eyes that seemed to scan every inch of him.

"Heero."

His eyes shot up to her, hands clinching into fists. That is what she had called him…

He anticipated her movement before she had even decided she was going to take a step towards him, and like a flash of light, he had both of her wrists behind her back with his other hand pushing down onto the back of her neck, her head banging against the floor as she fell helpless beneath his calculated movements. He had her facedown, but she twisted her neck to where she turned her face to the side. Her eyes swam, unfocused for a few seconds, as blood trickled out of her nose and down her cheek. His eyes pierced through the darkness of the room and focused on her, no mercy within their depths.

"I know who you are!" She whispered, wary of the painful hold he had her in. He could kill her any number of ways like this.

"You _all_ know who I am." He said, the sound deep and almost a growl. She swallowed and tried to shake her head, then grimaced when he pushed further down onto her neck, crushing her wind pipe against the concrete floor. She tried to inhale and ended up choking, but he did not take the pressure off of her.

"You are of no use to me. I can find answers elsewhere." He said, and her eyes bulged as the oxygen was cut off from her, her face turning pale. She groaned and closed her eyes as she began to see spots, her mind going blurry. He released her hands, which had fallen limply at her sides, and wrapped his arm around her stomach. As she attempted to inhale once more, he flexed his arm and subsequently pushed her diaphragm in, cutting off any oxygen she had been trying to retain. She groaned once more and her eyes fluttered, rolling into the back of her head.

"Relena…"

The name made him pause. He heard a barrage of thirty or so men coming, probably less than six doors away from him. He could have easily taken them all out alone, but he needed this woman. She knew something. She had long since lost consciousness, and he flipped her over and glanced at her name tag.

_Sally._

Grunting to himself, he hefted her up and threw her over his shoulder. He glanced about the room once more, and then eyed the vent shaft above him.

--

"That stupid sonofa-"

"Quatre! Grab him!"

"…I'll kill him!"

The monitor went careening towards the floor as Wufei violently kicked it off the desk, showers of sparks lighting up the dark Preventor's office. Quatre made a half-hearted attempt to place his hand on Wufei's shoulder as he stomped off towards the door, which Wufei immediately snorted at, and jerked his shoulder out of his hold. Quatre eyed him resolutely, crossing his arms over his chest and cocking his head to the side. Une stared sullenly at her new laptop now in shambles across her office.

"You will be of no use to her like that."

"And how exactly do _you_ know of what use I could be to her?" he said, the concern behind his eyes leading to the anger boiling at the surface. Wufei glared at Quatre as he stepped in front of the exit. "_Move_."

"Now, now, Mr. Chang…you will be of no use to _anyone _if you're dead."

Dorothy stepped from behind Quatre, placing her hand on his shoulder. She lingered beside him for a few moments and whispered something into his ear, which caused his eyes to widen slightly and an embarrassed cough to follow. Une's demeanor immediately heightened to one of defense. Wufei seemed to struggle involuntarily with his rage and his curiosity as to why in the world Dorothy Catalonia was standing smack dab in one of the most secure locations within the Preventor's quarters.

"What is the meaning of this?" Une managed to ground out, already feeling for her firearm. An amused smile came across Dorothy's face as she lifted the side of her mouth, her lip gloss flashing.

"_Calm down_, Commander. I would have thought that someone in your position would understand the boundaries of propriety when it comes to having guests within your quarters. Or have I been mistaken?" she grinned, slinking across the room. She placed herself directly in front of Une's desk and paused as she noted the remains of the laptop.

"Quatre?" Une ground out, glancing at him across the room. He smiled dumbly and let out a half-scared chuckle, then dropped it as Une's look immediately turned into a scowl.

"I told you I would have a guest…" he managed to mumble, looking down at his feet.

"You didn't tell me it would be Cruella de Vil." She proceeded. Dorothy glanced at her, annoyed, but then replaced the annoyance with a coy smile.

"Enough of this!" Wufei bellowed, his patience clearly gone. "Either you have something important to tell us, or I'm leaving to put as many bullet holes through Heero Yuy as I can. I am not waiting to hear you screw around with us."

"Fine." She countered, but did it in such a cool way that it made Wufei even angrier than if she had openly insulted him. "Let's get to the point then, shall when? I have information on Heero Yuy and the scientists who have been working on him. I can give you an approximation of what he is capable of and just how much man power it will take to take him down. And you," she eyed Wufei up and down and snorted, "my dear, are nothing. He would hear you before you ever even approached."

"We know all of this already. We saw what he did to Elliot Benja. Sally went in this morning to check his vitals. He's in a coma."

Dorothy laughed, placing her hand over her mouth. Une glared at her.

"Elliot Benja is a pawn."

Immediately, everyone's attention snapped to Dorothy. She sighed and sat down in Une's guest chair, holding her hand up and glancing at her perfectly manicured nails. Wufei closed his eyes and sighed, resigning himself to leaning back against the wall with his arms crossed. Une placed her hands on the desk and waited, none too patiently, for her to continue.

"The man is an imbecile. The only power he wields is within the confines of politics and economics. He knows nothing of war, nothing of science. He has no idea of what exactly Heero Yuy is capable of."

"Then who should we be looking at here?"

"Alexei Patrenko."

"The doctor?"

"That's not exactly what I'd label him." She stated, sitting up in her chair. She reached into her golden clutch and pulled out a small device. She flipped a switch on it, and immediately a holographic picture aligned along the ceiling of the room. Several images flashed by as she began to explain each one.

"Child prodigy, for beginners." She stated, the first image of what looked to be a very young Alexei in a room full of medals and certificates, holding trophies in his arms. Surrounding him were what looked to be several other scientists with their hands on his shoulders, smiling. "At this age, he was beginning to develop a cure for cancer." She mentioned, her eyes softening slightly at the image. She clicked to the next transmission.

"Is that…" Wufei whispered, eyes widening at the screen.

"Yes. That is PD Enterprises, before Relena knew it was ever hers." Dorothy stated. On the screen, Alexei was smiling and working on a conveyor belt, several other workers beside him. They seemed to be manufacturing something through the machines. "Alexei has been brainwashed by those scientists ever since he was a child. Why they did not kill him when they attempted suicide, I do not know, but I do know that he's producing much more than the _Matriz Árida_ in Elliot Benja's plant. The idiot doesn't even realize who he's harboring."

"And how exactly do _you_ know, Dorothy?" Une said, methodically shifting her weight in an attempt to control her patience.

"Alexei Patrenko is my half-brother. He has been in contact with me since before Oz." She paused to allow them to digest the information. Wufei abruptly sat down into one of the office chairs, tightening his fists. Dorothy crossed the room, the lights from the hologram flashing across her face, heightening the cat-like glare from her eyes. She handed Une the hologram device she had been holding.

"This contains much more than pictures, I assure you. Alexei and I were very close as children, but when he began to train under those scientists, his scientific genius began to take on a much darker side. I was ecstatic about it in the beginning, during the wars, even slightly during the coup d'etat with Mariemeia…but I have seen where it has taken him. He has lost his reasoning. The only thing he wants now is for this peace to be shaken, and eventually crumble. He wants to start life as humanity knows it over. A re-evolution, if you will."

"But what does this have to do with Elliot Benja? Or Heero, for that matter? So he's a scientific genius who trained up under the scientists who created the _Matriz Árida_. That still doesn't put enough on him for us to take him out…"

"Don't you understand?" she said, placing her hands down on the desk. "Alexei _cannot_ be "taken out". He has been using Heero as a weapon!"

"What?"

She sighed. "Alexei was the one who _created_ the _Matriz Árida_. The scientists only dispersed it into the atmosphere."

"….Quatre…" Une spoke softly to him, his kind eyes looking sullenly up at her. "Can you vouch for what she is telling me?"

"Yes, Commander. I've researched everything she's said. The DNA testing, Alexei Patrenko's tax and medical records from working at the factory…everything."

"I am afraid there is much more that needs to be dealt with besides attributing blame on the inventor of the chemical. Although this will probably hurl Relena back into office, with the full support of the people, there is the matter of what Alexei has been creating while he's been working at Elliot Benja's plant. Now that Elliot's control over Alexei has been diffused…my guess is that Alexei will strike very quickly."

"What do you mean 'diffused'?"

"Elliot is in a coma. If Alexei were to strike anytime, it would be now, when he has the largest amount of flexibility and power to wield over Elliot's manufacturing plant."

"But something went wrong. We just saw, Heero is obviously not reacting the way they thought he would. He just tried to kill Elliot. Heero is their biggest project, and obviously the most powerful…"

"Yes. But Heero was not Alexei's _only_ project, Commander. Just the strongest. He had much influence with the disbursement of the chemical, but now that a woman has gotten pregnant for the first time in years…he is probably ready to bring some of his other 'projects' into the picture, in case we can figure out how it happened. How Hilde got pregnant, if she'll let our scientists examine her. And we _will _figure it out. I have no doubt in my mind."

"So, basically, we _have_ to get Heero back."

"Yes."

"But…there's no way we can, you just said. He's too fast."

"There was no way you could up until I placed that device in your hands." She grinned, flattening out her billowing skirts. "Heero is obviously confused. Up until now, he has obeyed their every whim. But something must have happened that triggered something in his mind. In all honesty, there is no reason why Sally should not be dead right now. Whose name did she say that made him stop?"

"You are joking." Wufei spat.

"Relena. You get her in the same room with him, and he will not resist us."

"But how do you know?"

"For an undercover Preventor, you _are_ quite dull."

"Dorothy!" Quatre cut her off, making his way to Wufei, who had already risen from his seat and looked like he would strike Dorothy in the mouth at any moment. She gazed coolly back at him.

"Une, this is ridiculous! She said herself that he was her half-brother. How do we know she's not working with him on this? Why has she waited until now to tell us about it?"

"I had to gain his trust _somehow_, you idiot. I could not suddenly blow my cover before I discovered just how deep this all went."

"That is enough. Wufei, we now have a lead. We must organize this quickly. I want you to gather your highest ranked Preventors. We must track him before he discovers Sally's camera and communication device." Une turned to Quatre.

"Quatre, I want you to locate Relena and brief her on the situation. She must be prepared, and I do not only mean physically. Duo must accompany her. Do you understand?"

He nodded.

"Tonight is the night of a change in tide, gentlemen. We must be prepared."

--

"Girls, settle down. I have an important announcement to make."

Mariemeia glanced around the room of girls surrounding her. Over the past week, she had grown to become very fond of a number of them. They all scampered back to their bunks as the woman who had spoken – Ms. Elaine, their headmistress – began making the rounds for curfew. Normally at this time of night they were all simply sent to sleep, but the way Ms. Elaine kept fiddling with her keys to the dorms told her something was up.

"I'm afraid I have some very disconcerting news. The owner of this establishment – Dr. Elliot Benja – seems to have been attacked yesterday. He is in a coma."

Several gasps from the opposite end of the room led Mariemeia to roll her eyes. In the corner, Jodi and her group of clones looked like they were about to break into hysterics.

"I know you all must be concerned about what this means for us. No, you will not be going home…" she smiled, "But I am afraid that the authority of supervision has been passed on to Dr. Benja's assistant director, a Dr. Alexei Patrenko. He will be coming to us by the end of the week to begin a new series of testing on you girls. Rumor has it he is developing a cure…so, that is something we all have to look forward to!"

Several of the girls screamed with glee, others just began crying. Mariemeia pulled the sheets up to her shoulders and turned over on her side, an unexplainable chill running through her.

--

"Hilde, babe?"

The blackness behind her eyes gave way beneath the slant of light that broke through, brightness assaulting her vision as she attempted to wake herself up. As she focused, wide, violet eyes stared at her, enamored and cheerful. Duo smiled down at her, running his fingers through her dark hair as she tried to come to herself. A dull throb in the back of her head caused her to grimace slightly, but then she smiled up at him, his eyes shining like amethyst beneath the sea.

"I got hit."

He chuckled. "Yeah, I'd say so. How many times am I going to have to tell you to stop risking yourself for me, you stupid fool?"

She smiled. "I figured you'd say something like that."

His hand gripped hers harshly, and she realized that he was shaking slightly, even though he was obviously trying to make her feel better. He was also dressed in standard Preventors Special Forces gear, all black with a harness and holster across his hips, the black vest protruding off his chest.

"You know that's so unfair for you to wear that here. You know it turns me on, so you shouldn't tease unless you want something to happen right here and now, sexy."

He laughed at her and slumped onto the side of her bed, tracing lines along her stomach. She stared worriedly up at him, placing her hand over his. He sighed.

"I have something to tell you."

She fingered the tip of his braid absentmindedly as she stared at him. He was so adorable when…

"Hilde, we're pregnant."

She stopped, staring disbelievingly up at him. His hand squeezed around her limp one, her breath catching in her throat.

"H-how…"

The look on her face pronounced that she was in slight shock, a cold sweat taking over her features. She had stopped breathing and had not yet inhaled. Duo immediately leaned over her and held her face between his hands, gazing down into her eyes.

"Hilde, look at me. It's all right. You're all right. The baby is fine. It's really happening. The doctors can't explain it, but it has happened. Look at me…"

Her eyes seemed to swim around until he gently shook her, and then she looked directly at him.

"…look at me. I love you. Hilde, I love you. It's all right."

The tears came unbidden, as they always do. They trailed long lines down her face and he kissed them away. She half-sobbed, half-laughed in his arms, her fingers bunching up the hospital bed sheets. After a few more minutes of him simply holding her in his arms, he leaned back and stared unsurely at her.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes." She answered, sniffing and rubbing the skin underneath her eyes. When she looked up at him again, he was staring sullenly down at her. "What's wrong?"

"Tonight is the night we're going to go to Benja's factory and try to bring Heero back, whether he wants to or not. Relena is the bait, and I am going to be the one accompanying her…"

She immediately latched on to his arm, clinging to him for dear life. Part of it broke his heart, and part of it made him want to jump for joy.

"I thought you would want me to go away when you woke up…" he said, looking down. She stared incredulously at him. "…I thought that maybe you would have thought it was a mistake."

She pulled him back down to her and nuzzled her cheek against his chest, sitting up and wrapping her legs and arms around him in a death grip.

"Please don't go. I love you…please don't go. I can't do this without you. It's dangerous…" She looked helplessly up at him, and he could only look down into her eyes. "Duo, it's dangerous!"

"Nothing is going to happen to me. I promise. Hilde, babe, I'm sorry, but it's time for me to go…" He pulled her arms off of him and placed them down into her lap. Her tears dripped down onto his hands and he paused, his concern for her written like words across his face. He leaned over and kissed her full on the lips, and after a while finally forced himself to pull away so they could both breathe. Her eyes had closed, and he leaned down next to her ear and whispered softly.

"I'll find a way back to you. I always will. I promise."

When she looked up, he was gone.

--

So...I totally didn't even get near the actual "Heero and Relena Come Face-to-Face" scene.

My bad!

But, at least you know I don't have writer's block and have plenty to write about, so it shouldn't take too long...

Hopefully... :D


	7. Chapter Six

Surely as the Sun

Chapter Six

Relena made her way silently through the hallways in her home, the lights in the house out and dust settling in the air. Outside, dawn was breaking across the horizon and shining through the opened windows. She gazed sullenly ahead of her and ran her hand along the walls, the sound of fowl outside echoing through her home. The smell of the small pond permeated what was normally a house that smelled of soaps and fruity air fresheners, but she had sent all of the help home the evening before with instructions that they would not be required for today.

Milliardo and Noin had left earlier with a frantic call from Une about the circumstances of her daughter. Really, it was hard to think of Mariemeia as a child, especially having been in her company for so long. Her brow scrunched together. Kidnapped by a kid. She had been stuck in that sticky, gross pink suit for days. But really, she had only been a child at the time as well. History and all of its present and future builders had effectively hurled destiny in her direction, leaving her stunned and unprepared in its wake. Since then, Mariemeia had not only seemed to undergo a change in personality, but in being as well. It was one of the few memories she had of actually making a difference in someone's life that she could see. All of her working, exhaustive efforts for mankind were done on a worldwide scale now, and hardly any of it was personal anymore. She supposed it came with the job description.

And then there was the startling, shattering depiction of what she knew she would always have to do at the beginning of this war. Of the kind of person she knew she would have to become. In politics, you're supposed to develop an austere, calloused shell. To know that your opinion and your way of thinking is right no matter what, and if you can't get exactly what you want then compromise is the only other option. Giving in completely is not. Hardly anyone's opinion in politics is ever completely changed, and as a result, you have to harden yourself. But Relena was not hard, and she was not changed.

She supposed that it came with grounds of being raised in a home very loving and built on principles of the Bible. To love one another, to love God. To give freely, not to be selfish, to live a life of sacrifice. A life built on selfishness will only end in never being content with what you have, with never making a positive difference. Loving Jesus Christ and letting Him have all of you – every mistake, every failure, every accomplishment, every dream – letting Him love you _back_ –_ that_ is a life well-lived. That's what her father had told her.

And then the chemical was released. All of the good she had worked for, all of the times she had sacrificed something for someone else – and in return, the world slapped her hands away. She supposed that part of her breakdown was a loss of faith in God, and when that had happened – when she had believed she was utterly and entirely alone – that had driven her over the edge. With Heero gone missing, and then found nearly dead, only to go missing again – in some sort of sick perverse way to get to her…she did not know the reasoning behind it. She didn't know how to react, and so she sunk into herself. Women – not just _a_ woman, but women all over the world in some part of their minds blamed her for what had happened.

She sighed and paused her stroll down the hallway, looking up at the ceiling with her hands clasped behind her back. The atmosphere around her began to vanish from her mind and she closed her eyes.

"There are parts of me that I can't quite get to…there's something in me that wants to blame you for letting all of this happen…" she said, opening her eyes and searching the ceiling for any indication that someone was listening. "I don't know why you've let this happen, and I don't see how You could make it better. But I've heard it said that with you, anything is possible…and that one of the best things about you is your faithfulness. I know that I haven't been very faithful to you over the past year, and I know I gave up on you. But I believe in your forgiveness. I believe that you created me and fashioned me for such a time as this. And I believe, more than any of that, that you love me. Even when I refused to listen to you anymore you loved me and brought me out, and you healed my mind. And I believe that you're healing my heart now. What I ask…" She paused, the water building behind her eyes burning at the edges. She swallowed. "What I ask is that you help us to bring Heero back safely. Not just his body, but his mind. Bring back the man I knew. Bring back the kindness that you created in him. And help us to stop this war, and to find something to cure this."

She opened a sliding door in the hallway and reached into the closet, pulling out a white pea coat. She pulled the coat over her shoulders and around the thick, bullet-proof vest encasing her torso, buttoned it up, and then tied the thin belt high around her waste as she made her way to the doorway. As she closed the door and locked it she fumbled with the keys and stared at her hands for a moment.

"I know that's a lot. Sometimes I forget just how capable you are…I know you're going to come and change everything. You always do."

--

"Relena, I swear to freakin' Moses, if you don't get your butt to go faster I'm going to tie this cable around your neck and drag you behind me."

Relena eyed Duo with an unfazed look from behind and kept walking at her steady pace. He sighed and stared pathetically at Une. The Commander was drowning out what they were saying as she scanned the dark corridors of the now-emptied manufacturing plant where Heero had been hiding out for the past day with Sally. Wufei was on the team as well and scoping the area slightly ahead of them. He had been barking orders to get things moving for at least 8 hours straight and had apparently resigned himself to just doing the job at his pace, whether the rest of them kept up or not.

While Wufei and Sally had a strictly professional relationship, there was no denying the fact that the two were unknowingly completely in love with each other. Sally was so committed to her job and medical responsibilities to the rest of the staff that she busied herself constantly and didn't have the time nor the knowledge to understand completely Wufei's odd affections to her – how mild and wrongly received they were – and in return, the oddities of his relationship with her were magnified. While he himself didn't completely understand his reasoning, let alone what exactly it was he was feeling, the result was that the two of them never talked about their relationship but always wanted to be around one another. Duo imagined it wouldn't be long before the two of them understood what they had been missing out on. If Sally was still alive, that was.

A rock came hurling toward Duo's backside and he stopped mid-stride and turned around slowly, glaring at Relena in the dark. She stood still with her hands on her hips.

"Just because you want to get home and have your way with your wife doesn't mean the rest of us are as eager to hurry through with this, Duo Maxwell. This isn't easy for me."

A grin spread across his face slowly, and Relena thought for a moment he looked exactly like the Grinch on Christmas morning when all of the toys were gone.

"_You_ are just scared." He said, turning back around and running to catch up with Une, who hadn't even realized they were gone.

"I am not!" She said, quickening her pace. A light flickered up ahead and Une turned quickly around and scowled at the both of them.

"Will you two shut up! This is like working with children!"

Relena glared at Duo and mouthed 'look what you did' and then hurried past him. He started to counter her attack but then backed down as the atmosphere in the room suddenly changed. The hair on the back of his neck stood up and his body subconsciously tensed. The rest of the team seemed to notice the change as well, and Une motioned Wufei back a few paces as the rest of them grouped together.

--

"Meia."

Her eyes shot open and she tried to pitch her head forward, but her face was being held down by a hand clamped tightly over her mouth. She gazed wide-eyed in the dark until she was able to focus and see Kale's face in the darkness of one of the girl's cabins. A quick glance out the window showed the moon high and glowing, casting an eerie light into the room. He stared down at her with an intense look on his face as he placed his index finger over his mouth and motioned for her to be quiet. When she nodded he let go slowly and she sat up in the bed. His eyes roamed over the pink camisole she wore only for a moment and he turned away quickly and stared in the other direction. She could not tell if he was blushing. She reached under her bunk and pulled out a green hoodie, and as she zipped it she took the moment to stare at the profile of his face while he couldn't see her. He was staring at the ground and his long black lashes covered the warm brown color of his eyes, at which point her hand ached to reach up and run her hand across. She thought for a moment that he was the most handsome boy she had ever met, and then shook her head. It wouldn't do for her to get involved with someone here when she was sent as, in all honesty, a spy.

His eyes shifted so that he could see her in his peripheral vision and she moved quickly off of the bed. They both stood up and he grabbed her hand and pulled her through the room between the girl's beds as they slept. She glanced around to see if any of them were awake and, satisfied that no one had noticed, she followed him out the door.

When they reached the hallway he scaled the walls and she followed, never letting go of his hand. At the other end of the hall she could see the light from one of the lights plugged into an outlet, but other than that everything looked normal. She walked with him through several halls and then finally out of the compound and into the deserted cafeteria. Trowa sat at one of the tables with his arms folded and his eyes closed. She glanced around the cafeteria in confusion.

"He wants to talk to you." Kale said, nodding in Trowa's direction. She walked to him and Kale followed, but as she got closer to him she turned around and placed her hand on Kale's chest.

"I don't think it's a good idea for you to get anymore involved in this than you already are."

At this, Kale smiled and pushed past her. Trowa had opened his eyes and was looking up at her in amusement. "What is going on? Trowa, you know exactly why U…why my mother wouldn't want him to be here."

"He works for your mother, Mariemeia."

She stopped, bewildered, and eyed Kale up and down. He was cheesing at her and didn't seem to mind her obvious confusion.

"He works…for my mother? Trowa, he's barely 17."

"I'm 16, actually." He said, shoving his hands into his pockets. He shifted awkwardly between feet and Mariemeia cocked her head to the side, one eyebrow creased sarcastically.

"You of all people should know how old someone has to be to be capable of making a difference."

She grew angry and bit her lip. "Is there something you wanted to tell me?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Une wants you back home. This is getting too dangerous."

She sighed and clinched her fists at her sides, straightening her posture.

"She cannot control me forever! I know what I am doing. I'm not a child and I certainly don't have the mind of a child, and she has got to understand that!"

"They found a way in to Benja's plant. They found Heero. They're invading the premises as we speak. He nearly killed Sally and was trying to kill Benja, but succeeded in putting him in a coma instead. Alexei Patrenko is the brains behind the entire operation, and he's coming here in a few days. You would be in direct contact with the most powerful man in the colonies."

"And who else in Preventors would be able to have this kind of access to him without seeming suspicious? I'm the fastest and most capable option you all have at the moment and you know it. I am _not_ going home, Trowa."

"She thought you might say that." The corner of his mouth turned up in what she guessed could be considered a smirk. Which was a big deal for Trowa.

"She also said that if you refused to come back, your security here would be tripled and you would be wired 24 hours a day for the rest of your time here. She expects a phone call every 12 hours and a complete report during those two conversations. We are going to work it out so that you will not be among the girls Alexei tests his new injections on. Hopefully, by the time the time comes for him to do that, we will have him arrested." He paused and looked at her. "If you wanted a bigger part in this, you just got it."

--

In the end, all it had taken was for her to look him in the eyes and breathe his name. Not detached from him, not as if he were some sort of monster, but as the boy she had spent the hardest and most terrifying parts of her life with. He fashioned his gun in such a way that she knew he was disarming himself and letting her take control of the situation – of him, really.

Duo's grip around her waist tightened as he focused on Heero's face in the darkness. Above them, he was peering down through an opening in the vent shaft. She could not see anything but the outline of his brown hair and chilling blue eyes that burned through the darkness of the hallway, but as she whispered his name he stretched out across the expanse of space between the ceiling and the floor, a good hundred feet off the ground. He clawed his way around the walls like an insect, his fingers and the toes of his bare feet grasping at the walls in a way that was inhuman. His body slithered down and down until he landed gracefully on the floor in front of them.

Behind her, she heard Duo mouth an exclamation of unbelief and reach for his piece. She placed a hand on his arm and then pulled it off of her. Duo growled into her hair and pulled her closer to him. The movement was meant as a precaution, but Heero had obviously taken it as something else. His eyes flickered over with anger just for an instant, and before any of them realized what had happened he had sprinted down the hallway. The heavy sound of his bare feet pounding against the floor vibrated along the ground in quick motions as Une barked out a command. In the distance, Relena could barely make out Wufei darting out from behind an object in the hallway. Heero had obviously sensed the attack for a significant amount of time and easily used his momentum to jump and push himself off against the walls. He had vaulted so high that his feet ran up the wall and lightly grazed the ceiling before gravity brought him back down, quiet and fatal in the darkness. Heero reached for Wufei, one hand grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and the other wrapping around his ankle and turning his entire body sideways before ramming him against the wall. The sound of Wufei's body hitting the wall made Relena cringe and then take a step back as she watched his body fall to the floor, unmoving.

The sounds they were making had caused them to be noticed by the guards, and before she had a chance to react an alarm had gone off in the building. She could hear shouts and voices from the other hallways, but as Duo's hand slipped from hers and he began to march steadily in Heero's direction, she felt she had been left completely helpless to stop any of it.

Duo was still several yards away from Heero but continued his quick pace. He reached to his side and yanked out his gun, whirling it around and shooting it off in Heero's direction. Heero easily dodged the shot and began to run towards Duo at an unbelievable speed. Even as Duo shot at him he easily dodged the bullets, instead using the adrenaline to build his pace. Duo laughed and threw the gun to the side before breaking into a dead run himself, and as the two collided Relena called out Duo's name. He ignored her, the adrenaline pumping in his veins, and the two began fighting so fast she was unable to catch up with who had landed a punch and who hadn't.

The fighting lasted for several minutes, and with each punch and kick, Relena knew there was going to be a punctured organ or some kind of fatal hemorrhage to make everything fall apart. In the end, all Heero had to do was get Duo in a similar position that he had Sally in the day before. Relena stared in shock as Duo looked at her in Heero's suffocating hold over his neck and abdomen, his face growing pale. His eyes seemed to glisten and he looked up at the ceiling as the color continued to drain from his face. She could see the regret in his eyes, the sadness – and yet, the acceptance of what was happening pass through his façade. As if finally coming to herself, she lurched forward.

"Stop!"

Heero's head shot up and he eyed her dangerously. He let Duo fall from his hands and slump to the ground, and she walked quietly up to him. She could hear Duo clawing his nails across the ground in disorientation, trying to yell at her but only able to manage a strangled whisper, but all she could focus on was the wild look in Heero's eyes and the way he seemed to see right through her. His hands hung tiredly at his sides and his breathing was heavy, but she knew that those kinds of things wouldn't hinder his ability in the least.

She reached up and he snatched her wrist away, his grip harsh. Her eyes widened and her mouth parted slightly before she focused on his eyes, cold and empty in the red glare of lights from the alarms going off. She studied them for a moment and he glared back at her, but after a few seconds he let go of her bruised wrist. He did not break eye contact with her until she reached up and ran her thumb across his cheek. He closed his eyes slowly and turned his face into her touch ever-so-slightly.

"I'll help you remember." She said, wondering where the courage came from for her to do that. "Come with me, Heero."

He looked up at her, clearly not understanding what she was saying, but trusting her nonetheless.


	8. Chapter Seven

Merry Christmas everybody! Don't forget the reason for the season .

_Italics_ are flashbacks. This is rated PG-13.

"What happens now?"

Relena paused in the doorway and turned to look at Wufei. Sally lay unconscious in his arms as her arms fell limply towards the ground, but there were no obvious signs of anything being fatally wrong with her. Heero had led them to where he had been keeping her in a semi-conscious state, a small room that would have been impossible to find because it was not on the blueprints that Preventor's had received from Dorothy earlier in the week. Relena wouldn't have been surprised if Elliot didn't even realize it was there.

Heero had not taken care to feed or hydrate Sally for the entire time she had been under his watch, and the combination of Heero slamming her head against a desk and then strangling her almost to death resulted in her present state. Wufei had obviously not taken kindly to Heero's treatment, and was even angrier that Heero had taken him out so quickly. He glared ahead of her and she turned to watch Heero in front of her as he walked. He had no shirt or shoes on and his body was smudged with dirt and dust from the vent shafts, not to mention dried blood in streaks down his face and along his chest and calves from the attacks he had been receiving while waiting for them in the plant. He had to have been waiting, she reasoned. He knew they would come for Sally. If he had wanted to leave, he could have very easily done so.

Sensing her stare, he turned around to look at her. The entire time they had been trying to escape out of the facility without letting the guards know who had been there in the first place, Heero had stayed by her side. He was like a shell, moving quickly every time she encountered even a hint of danger to protect her. It did not make any sense to her or to any of the others, because Heero obviously did not remember who she or any of them were. In the back of her mind this had been bothering her for weeks, but she had tried to ignore it, hoping against hope that she could do something to help him remember who he was and what he meant to them.

Everything about him now was different. Heero had always been a very prepared person, trained to never let your guard down physically and to remain ready, but before he was able to pull it off with such ease. Now he walked with his arms held at his sides and his hands spread slightly open, as if he were ready to grab the nearest person and rip them apart with his bare hands. She did not miss the way he seemed to notice everything. Realizing she had completely stopped walking and was staring at Heero Yuy staring back at her for probably a full 30 seconds, she turned around to answer Wufei. He had already gone inside Preventor's and was more than likely on his way to the medical division with Sally.

A call rang forth on Une's phone and she quickly turned to the side, holding one finger to her ear and shutting the rest of them out. Duo was opposite her leaning his back against the wall, absentmindedly rubbing his hand against his neck. An angry purple and red bruise had already begun to form a ring around his neck, but he did not stand and glower at Heero as she thought he would. He looked down at the floor tiredly, his eyes drooping. He wanted to go home to Hilde.

"What do you mean she said she wouldn't come home? Trowa, I swear, if you…" Une trailed off as she entered into her office. Duo noticed how quiet it had gotten after a few moments and looked up, smirking. Was he…?

He pushed himself off the wall and walked down the hallway, leaving her alone. With Heero.

She turned to look at him and caught her breath as she met his face very, _very_ close to hers. Somewhere along the way he had lost his ability to understand the boundaries of personal space and, as he breathed out warm air along her collarbone, she figured she didn't mind it so much. His eyes studied hers only for a moment before he began to scrutinize her body, staring up at the edges of her hair and then traveling down, down, down…

She reached up to slap him but he caught her wrist and tilted his head to the side, leaving her speechless with the warning that flashed in his eyes, in the way he surrounded her against the wall, in his breath, in his being. For a moment she was afraid, but the feeling subsided as he turned his attention to her opened hand held between his fingers. She felt at once apologetic as she realized he was merely surveying her and not mentally undressing her, but all coherent thought left her mind as he spread her fingers apart and slid his up and down the length of hers lightly, sending shivers up her arm. She jerked in reaction, her back meeting the wall as something flashed across his eyes in recognition at her response. He looked confused for a moment as he continued to stare at where his hand had grazed up and down hers, and in that moment she boldly stepped forward to touch him, but he stepped back quickly and nodded towards the doorway. Not but a few seconds later, Une stomped back in and began ranting about "how stupid Maxwell could really be, leaving the Vice Foreign Minister alone with the most dangerous man alive." As Une called her name to get going and Heero began following one of the office personnel to the recovery room, Relena could only think one thing:

Heero Yuy remembered _something_.

---

"_You act just like a child sometimes. Do you realize that?"_

_Her bright blue eyes were burning as she leveled her attention towards him. Behind them, the gate to Relena's house was closing automatically as they drove off in a Preventor's jeep. He clicked open his laptop and began scanning through several documents._

"_Relena is being delirious. You and I both know that Heero is more than likely dead, and if his body isn't, his mind is. People don't recover from that kind of trauma. Not even Heero."_

"_Heero has had much more experience with controlling his mind than the typical man, Wufei. More than you or Zechs or any of the other pilots. He was the only one of us capable of mastering the Zero System. We've all always known he was different."_

_He snorted and continued scanning his computer._

"_You all give him far too much credit. Heero survived the way he did because he was lucky and decided to live by his emotions, not because he was strong. He was weak. We are all weak because we let our emotions get the best of us. We let them change us." He typed something in to his laptop. "I will not let them change me."_

_Sally's grip on the steering wheel tightened as she stared ahead at the stretch of road that would continue on for the next 30 minutes into nothing. He had expected her to sigh or come back with a smart remark, or ignore him completely._

"_She loves him."_

_He turned his head to her slightly and barely raised an eyebrow. "Love is an emotion that one feels. What Relena feels for Heero should not determine the course of her life, and she definitely shouldn't let it hinder her capability in handling our courses of action."_

"_You are wrong, Wufei."_

"_Don't try and change my opinion, Sally. I've seen what love does to people. It makes you soft and it makes you weak. Feeling love is something to be desired, but only when there is time for it. Life as humanity knows it is in the middle of a potentially fatal crisis, and surviving is the only thing people can think of right now. There isn't time for love."_

_As if finalizing the conversation, he snapped shut his laptop and stared ahead at the road. He had to strain to hear her as she spoke softly next to him._

"_Love isn't a feeling. It's a choice. And love is what life is about to begin with. What is the point in fighting to survive and live if we don't have something to live for?"_

He stared down into Sally's half-opened blue eyes once again, only in a different way now. Once she had been stabilized, put on a stretcher, and had an IV running fluid into her, she had come out of the semi-conscious state she had been drugged in to for the past two days. Heero had kept the drugs in her system on purpose so that she would not wake up and try to escape, more than likely knowing that whoever Sally was connected to would have some answers about his past and would come looking for her. In the process of hiding, he had dragged her body through the vent shafts and through who-knows-what else, and the scratches and bruises lining her body gave proof to it. Wufei grimaced, some feeling ebbing away at his stomach that he couldn't recognize.

The feel of her fingertips grazing the hair along his arm brought him back to attention. She was still looking up at him tiredly, but with a smirk on her face. He couldn't decide if she looked annoying or incredibly sexy with it on. Then, he wondered aloud about where in the world that came from. Giving him an odd look, she motioned for him to give her a pen and some paper. She hadn't been able to speak since Heero had nearly crushed her esophagus and was obviously annoyed by it. She scribbled down "What?" on the notepad, and Wufei shook his head.

"Nothing."

She slit her eyes at him in a way that was meant to be dangerous, but he could only laugh. Then, when he continued to ignore her question, she started poking him in the hip with the straw left by her untouched apple juice sitting on the cart next to her bed. Giving in after a full 20 seconds of her doing it, he knelt next to her bed and laid his arms across the top of it, resting his chin on his hands and giving her a look he saved for her alone.

"You just look so cute when you make those fac…what is that?"

He sat back and observed a bump underneath the sheets, which she immediately pulled away. He smiled at her and reached across her to pull back the sheets, but she lifted her knees and pushed him off.

"Let me see! What is it, a teddy bear or something?"

The look in her eyes told him it was something she was concerned about, and he immediately grew worried. "Sally, let me see it."

When she shook her head 'no' one more time, he grabbed the lever next to her bed and pushed down on it, sending her flat on her back. Before she had time to react, Wufei had thrown back the sheets, revealing a cast around her arm and several bandages wrapped around her rib cage. Her fingers had some kind of metal splint on each one, stretching them out. They were red and gray, angry with bruises. Blood still smeared her hand.

Sally started to sit up, but Wufei was out the door before she had time to stop him.

"YUY!"

Wufei slammed the locker doors closed as he marched into the training room with a bat in tow. Several of the trainees stared at him and began backing away as he continued to call for Heero, and when he began to slam the bat against the metal lockers they jumped and scampered out of the large gymnasium. Wufei stopped and pulled up his sleeves as he glanced around the room. The personnel officer had said this was where he had left him for questioning, but he was nowhere in site.

"Get out here now, coward! Stop running and hiding and _face_ me!"

Out of nowhere, Heero appeared from the shadows. His face was the same as it had been when they had first found him – expressionless, unimpassioned, empty, detached. He glanced at Wufei as if he were merely a fly on the wall as he walked towards him. When he was close enough, Wufei suddenly lashed out and whipped the bat around at him. Heero bent over backwards slightly to dodge the attack, and before Wufei had time to take another swing, Heero grabbed the bat and snapped it in two across his thigh. Surprise littered across Wufei's face before his anger overtook him and he began throwing punches.

"What did you do to her?!"

Wufei tried to drop-kick Heero, but he jumped and side-swiped Wufei in the mouth with his foot. Blood sprayed across the concrete floor as Wufei stumbled backwards, Heero glaring at him with his hands clenched at his sides.

"I dropped her."

Glancing up from his position on the ground, murder erupted in his eyes as Wufei pushed himself off the ground. He once again began to combat Heero across the floor as several of the officers began to crowd around and watch the fight.

"You _dropped_ her?"

"Yes. We were in the vent shafts and were being followed. I did not have the time to carry her down to the floor, so I dropped her."

"What is wrong with you?! Don't you realize that she's not like you? You could have killed her!"

Wufei sent his fist flying in straight towards Heero's face. Heero grabbed his hand and began squeezing. Wufei immediately sank to his knees, a cry coming forth from his throat before he bit it back. Wufei glared up at him after a few moments of trying to accommodate himself to the pain.

"But that doesn't matter to you anymore, does it? You promised Relena you would never kill again, and look what you've done. You've killed anyone who you were commanded to. You've become just like a machine."

_When he noticed her shadow, he looked up and saw her golden hair shining in the sun. The blue of her eyes was hypnotizing, captivating him where he sat. _

"_I thought I might find you here."_

"_Relena…"_

_He had not known her but for a little while then, but he had saved her many times over, even though it was his mission to kill her. Her slender legs looked tantalizing in the sun as he gazed over her for a moment, the book in his hands lying forgotten on the bench inside the park. They were inside the Sanc Kingdom, but he didn't expect for her to come see him. Especially knowing what he was supposed to do. Did she have a death wish?_

"_Can I sit beside you?"_

_The question was innocent enough, but she made him uncomfortable. The way she looked at him made him uncomfortable. The way her mouth moved when she talked made him uncomfortable…_

"_It's your country. You can do what you want."_

"_Guess so. Why were you kind enough to stay here in my country, Heero? In the past you would have just gone off to fight battles…"_

_The sheer pink gloss on her lips was an annoying distraction. A sexy, teasing distraction…_

"_Hmm?"_

_She looked oddly at him for a moment, tilting her head to the side that sent her golden hair swaying to the right side of her face, revealing the pale, beautiful skin of her neck…_

"_No matter how much I tried to stop you, you went back into outer space. But your homeland sure didn't treat you very kindly at all. It must have been so hard. Yet, despite that, you continue to carry on fighting. You've got an intensity in your eyes that hasn't changed since the first time we met…"_

Pain shot through his stomach as Wufei undercut him as hard as he could, sending him stumbling backwards and into the wall. Taking advantage of his distraction, Wufei grabbed the handle-end of what was left of the bat and tapped it against his hand as he walked towards Heero.

"People like you and I don't deserve second chances, Yuy. And you can bet you never, _ever_ deserved her. Even after all this time, she's still waiting for you. What do you think she'll think when you tell her the things you've done?"

"What I've…done?"

Wufei flipped the bat over with one hand and sent the handle smashing into Heero's back, directly over his kidney. He arched his back in pain only for a moment before tackling Wufei to the ground, the brunt of his fist coming up and shoving upwards into Wufei's nostrils. The sound of cartilage cracking met his ears as blood began making its way down his nose. Wufei rolled on his side and held his hands over his nose, squeezing his eyes shut.

"_I will eradicate Zechs, then Treize. The war will end, and if you survive, peace will come. This is the single thing I can do for you."_

_She looked sadly up at him through her helmet. There was no other moment in his life when he'd wanted to kiss a girl so badly. She was beautiful, but that was not the reason. It was because she saw him. Right into him._

"_Heero…"_

"_I promised to protect you...to protect you and the Earth Sphere. The only way I can do that is to fight."_

"No!"

He pounded his fist into the wall, leaving a crack with several fractures spreading around it. One of the female officers yelped, but he left Wufei lying on the ground holding his nose and stalked out of the room. He made his way through the hallways without needing any direction, and when he reached Relena's office, he flew past the secretary. When he opened her door she was nowhere to be found. He ran back towards the secretary, who stared up at him, terrified.

"Where is she?"

"T-the l-ladies showers, s-sir, b-but…"

He ignored her and ran towards the other end of the building, punching in the button on the elevator. When he reached the bottom floor, he took off in a dead sprint. He reached a door and flung it open. Steam and the smell of cherry blossom, peach, and white jasmine assaulted his nostrils. Why he knew those exact smells he didn't know, but he figured it had something to do with his training. Several of the girls ran screaming out of the room, but Relena was not among them. He walked between the showers towards the back of the room and found her there towel-drying her hair, clad in a pair of pink sweatpants and a standard Preventor's t-shirt.

He stood transfixed by her for a moment, her long blonde hair running in rivulets down her back, the water still wet upon her skin. She paused for a moment and, sensing him, she turned her head slowly towards him.

"Why did you come for me?"

Her eyes held that look that always took his breath away as she made her way over to him, tossing her gym bag over her shoulder. She ran her finger through her hair, attempting to comb out the knots. When she reached him, she sighed.

"Why do you think I came for you, Heero? Did you think I would just forget?"

"It was dangerous. What if the side effects of the chemical weren't gone? What if I hadn't remembered them? What if I hadn't remembered _you_, Relena? Do you realize what I could have done to you?"

"It didn't matter. You were worth it, Heero. Why can't you understand that?"

"You were so stupid, Relena! They're just going to try and come for me again. One injection of that stuff, and I'll forget everything. That's the only way he could keep me from remembering before, and the only reason I started remembering was because they waited a little too late to give it to me, and then I saw you there…"

"Look at me, Heero." She grabbed him by the chin and forced him to look at her, the sincerity in her eyes tearing at his insides. He took a step back and sighed as he fell against the wall and sat down against it, bending his legs and hanging his head tiredly. She placed her hands on his knees and drew close to him, the tips of her hair leaving drops of water on his legs. "We needed you to help us end this thing once and for all. Without you, we had nothing. Besides that, you are a very dear friend to all of us. Friends don't let friends get kidnapped and experimented on by scientists." She said, smiling up at him.

He looked away from her and closed himself off, the steel returning to his eyes.

"I still don't remember everything."

"It's all right. We'll figure it out."

He looked helplessly up at the ceiling for a few moments, then pushed himself up off the floor. As he walked out of the room, she turned back around to grab the rest of her things.

"You don't know the things I've done." He whispered. She did not hear, and he walked away.


	9. Chapter Eight

**AN:** Thank you to all of my faithful reviewers! You guys have made writing this much more exciting, and made me want to write it faster. I should be done in a couple of more chapters. Thank you again!

Also, I should mention that this chapter is very high in Christian content. I don't own Gundam Wing. This is rated PG-13.

**Surely as the Sun**

**Chapter Eight**

"What do you mean we're going in _now_?"

Duo shoved his hands into his pockets as he followed Une through the hallways in Preventor's. Several officers were following in line as she argued back at him, gripping her cell phone harshly. She held up her other hand in Duo's face as she held the phone closer to her ear, shushing him. He immediately stopped as he watched the concern begin to wash over her face, her eyes widening the longer she listened. A choking sound began in her mouth before she held it back, then immediately rubbed her eyes as they began to water and redden. She leaned against the wall and Duo turned to the other officers and dismissed them, then took Une by the shoulder and guided her towards her office door as she hung up the phone. She sat down mechanically into her office chair and stared into space for several moments.

"Commander?" he asked quietly, leaning over her table and staring her in the eye. She suddenly snapped out of her trance and looked up at him, confused for a moment, before hardening her expression.

"Yes we're going in _now_, Agent Maxwell. Elliot Benja is still in a coma and Alexei Patrenko's security will be at a disadvantage in space while they are at the girl's camp in the colonies. Half of them are still back at the plant."

"But, ma'am, Heero _just_ got here. He still doesn't remember everything. You don't think we should have a little more time to prepare…?"

"That is enough!" She yelled, slamming her hands down on the table. Duo glared at her and threw his hands in the air, making his way to the door.

"You have no idea how this mission has jeopardized the stability of my marriage, of my _life, _of my unborn child! I'd like to go to the hospital and check on my pregnant wife and let her know that I'm not _dead_, Commander! Surely you must understand what that is like. That _must _constitute some time away from this for me!"

Her eyes softened for a moment as she mulled his words over in her head, before she looked down at the table.

"I understand your request. However, there is some new information that has made the timing in this mission dire…"

She looked sullenly up at him for a moment, placing her thumb along her chin and tapping her lips with her index finger, before glancing down at a file on her desk. She sighed and looked back up at him.

"There will be a briefing in my office in one hour, and when we are through, we will have one night to prepare. Tomorrow morning we are going in to space. Do you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Be back in my office in _one hour_, Duo."

---

Relena growled in frustration as the phone in her office rang for the fifth time in the last ten minutes, slamming the paper she had been holding in her hand down on the desk.

"Leave me alone leave me alone leave me ALONE!" she yelled, picking up the phone and shutting it back down on the receiver. Why was it that every time she sat down in her office everyone decided they suddenly needed her for something?

Pinching her brow, she sat up from her desk and made her way over to the pictures lining her walls. Several certificates were framed, including her degrees from the online classes she had been taking for the past several years. Half of the things she didn't even remember. Where exactly did certification in exotic animal rescue come into play in politics, anyway?

She continued side-stepping along the walls. She needed a break. Seriously. Having overcome her nervous breakdown was one of the hardest things she'd ever had to do, but overcoming the guilt of what had happened as a result of her disinterest still haunted her every waking moment. Heero was proof of that.

He had seemed so withdrawn when they found him. Like he didn't recognize any of them but couldn't quite let go of a deeper connection with her. That _had_ to mean something. When she had seen him in the marketplace a few weeks ago, something had returned to her conscience– some feeling that her mind had locked away during her breakdown because of the confusion and pain it brought her in remembering. But then that wild, almost tangible look in his eyes shocked something in her, bringing with it an asthma attack and some of the most wonderful, terrible bittersweet thoughts.

She had loved him from the moment she had seen his face on that beach years ago. It was like the way the Earth's axis would always tilt in accordance with the orbit, or the way the stars would shine on the nights when you needed them the most. She could never escape from the ache that she felt when she thought of being without him. She had locked herself away from it during her recovery, but then he had seen her…

And then this morning, when he had come barging into the ladies' shower, that concerned anger burning in his eyes – he had remembered, too. Perhaps Heero had never loved her, but he had loved what she stood for, evidenced by the countless times he had laid down his life and sacrificed for peace. Her sub-conscious kept attempting to make her think that there was something more there, but she forced herself to ignore the thoughts. She couldn't let herself get caught up on the what-if's, especially during a crisis like this. In the end it would possibly lead her back into her depression, and she would be of no use like that.

"I probably wouldn't come out of it again, either." She mumbled to herself, making her way back over to her desk. A knock resounded at her door, followed by Duo barging in.

"Where the heck have you been? I've been calling for the past fifteen minutes! Une's got a mandatory meeting in her office in five." He said, then shut the door quickly behind him. Relena smiled slightly. Ever since Duo had rekindled things with Hilde, that light-heartedness had returned to his spirit. And then when he had found out Hilde was pregnant, the joy that she had sensed in him – it was contagious. She found herself smiling bigger then she had smiled in a long, long time.

If Hilde could get pregnant, maybe there was a cure. Maybe one day she'd be able to have children, too.

---

Quatre looked nervously around the room as everyone filed into Une's office. Dorothy stood behind him with her hand on his shoulder reassuringly, but he could not quell the feeling in his gut that something was terribly wrong. He placed his hand over hers for a moment and gave her a smile, but she only stared toward the front of the room at Une, focused. He doubted she even realized she had her hand on his shoulder.

"Don't be afraid, Dorothy. Everything is going to work out." He said. She spared him a small smile as she lifted the corner of her mouth in that devious way of hers, then glanced over at Heero. He was leaning against the wall in the corner of the room directly behind Relena, the shadows covering most of him, but his blue eyes shining eerily through the shade. Dorothy eyed him warily.

"I have called everyone in on this meeting so abruptly because I have just received an emergency phone call from Mariemeia. I realize that everyone is exhausted, but I'm afraid we've been dealt a hand we weren't quite expecting, and our timeline has just shortened."

She glanced around the room once more, before setting her cell phone on speaker and placing it in the center of her office table. After a few moments, sounds of running through hallways could be heard on the phone, followed by scraping noises. There were a set of about three people trying to scale the hallways quietly, but heavy breathing could still be heard as they ran.

"Mom," Mariemeia's voice broke through the quiet, even though she was whispering as softly as she could. Une stared blankly at the phone, her mind somewhere else. "Alexei has come here earlier then expected. He's locked the plant down and threatened to shoot and kill anyone who refuses to cooperate. They're…" She began, but then stopped abruptly as a noise was heard in the background. She waited a few moments before continuing. "They're injecting something into the girls one at a time and waiting on the results before they continue on to the next. They're having seizures, mom. Two girls have died from complications…"

Dorothy's grip on Quatre's shoulder tightened painfully as her eyes grew slightly wider. She was staring at the phone like she wanted to murder it.

"They have a lot of guards with a lot of guns. Trowa managed to sneak me out with Kale's help, but I don't know how much longer we're going to be able to hide…"

A whizzing sound resounded suddenly on the phone, followed by an explosion. Several bodies hitting the ground coincided with guards shouting out orders, and then heavy breathing as someone grabbed the phone and began to run, but then stopped abruptly.

"Trowa?"

A few seconds ticked by as Mariemeia began to walk somewhere slowly, then began speeding up.

"There she is! Grab her!"

"Oh God, Trowa!"

Someone fumbled with the phone as several grappling noises were heard, before the phone hit the ground with a loud crack.

Une glanced around the room cautiously. Quatre, Wufei, Duo, and Heero all had the same look on their faces – that sense of self-sacrificing obligation that came with being a soldier.

"I don't think this needs any more explanation. I have issued an order to all Preventor's personnel to be ready to leave here at 0500. You four will be our hands and feet – we will need to do this as stealthily as possible. I do not want to involve those girls in an all-out manhunt between Alexei's guards and our officers. I want you four to overtake him by working together. Heero," She turned towards him, and he stepped out from the shadows with his arms crossed over his stomach. "You will be the one to take him out. You are the fastest. Dorothy will accompany you. Alexei still doesn't realize that she has leaked out any information. He still believes she's on his side. She will provide a distraction." He nodded curtly. Dorothy glanced at him for a moment, before nodding at Une herself.

"You are dismissed."

---

He couldn't sleep.

He jerked the covers off of himself and sat up in bed, the naked upper half of his body immune to the chill night air. He had started remembering the things he'd done, the process of his transformation, and his body wasn't adjusting very well to the amount of rest he'd been getting. They had been allowing him three hours a night at the chemical plant, and one of the benefits of the chemical was that he no longer needed the usual amount of sleep. But ever since he had come back here he hadn't been able to take his mind off of her.

In about four hours he would be flying into outer space once more. Where he came from, where everything in his life had seemed to start and end back up at. But he had never felt at home in space. He only felt like he belonged here.

They were going to use him as a weapon once more in the morning. This time it was for the good of mankind – once more, in a way, sacrificing his body to save the world. In the end it was a precise and belligerent reckoning for his mistakes, for the lives he'd taken in the name of peace. And for the lives he'd taken in the past few months simply because he was told to do so. But something in him had grown cold and ceased to live anymore inside of him – some innocence he was never able to take claim to. Something he was able to ignore and move past, until she came into his life. Now he always ended up stuck in the same place, hoping that he could be forgiven of his sins, and yet hoping he could somehow be made worthy of it.

_**You'll never be worthy of it.**_

He froze in surprise and looked around the room frantically. Nothing had been able to get past him since he had started this treatment. Not a sound, not a smell, not even a roach scrambling across the floor, yet the voice had spoken clearly as if directly into his ear.

"Who's there?"

There was no response. He grabbed his gun off the stand next to his bed and snaked lightly across the floor, meeting the wall of his apartment. He quickly ducked his head around the corner of the door and aimed the gun, but no one was there.

_**Some call me Healer.**_

"What the h –"

_**Others, Saviour. Deliverer. Comforter. Friend…**_

He looked around, confused. Surely he was dreaming. Or, perhaps, some side-effect of the chemical leaving his system. Hallucinations weren't that uncommon, were they?

"Show yourself, if you're real." He said, looking around the room. Outside, it had begun to rain. He could hear it through the walls.

_**If I were to show myself to you in full glory, you would not be able to handle it. You would die.**_

He forced his body to relax and stuck the gun into the waste band of his pants, sitting back down onto the bed. There was something awing about the sound of that voice. Something that reminded him of…deep calling out to deep.

"What do you want?"

_**I want you to know me.**_

"How can I know you if I can't see you?"

_**Believe in me.**_

The familiar words echoed loudly in the room, a mimic of his own request of Relena all those years ago. But how could he believe in a voice with nothing he could touch to prove its existence?

"My name is Heero Yuy. Gundam Pilot Zero One. I am a Preventor's Officer and this is my apartment. I will focus on the mission objective and not be distracted by evident auditory exclamations brought on by stress and…"

_**I know who you are. I knew you before you were formed in your mother's womb.**_

He sat up and began to march around the room, burning holes into the walls with his eyes. This was ridiculous. He couldn't possibly…

_**I have fashioned you for such a time as this, Heero. You have been called according to my purpose, and your steps are ordered.**_

"Are you trying to tell me that you're God? That right now I'm having a real live conversation with God in my apartment bedroom? If you're so real and mighty, where have you been all along? Growing up with no choice in becoming what I am, having no say in the things that have happened to make my life the way it has become – where have you been all this time? How can I believe in you _now_?"

There was a pause as the atmosphere quieted against his harsh words, the rise and fall of his voice no longer causing tension. The peace that had disappeared at his outburst began to filter back into the air the moment the voice began to speak.

_**Every good and perfect gift comes from me. The things that have happened in your life were done in an attempt by my enemy to snuff you out, to end your life before you came to know me. You have great things in you, and you were made to change the world. I allowed him to do those things in your life because they were necessary to bring you where you are right now. You have gone long enough without knowing me…**_

"Why are you telling me this now?!" He interrupted, staring angrily up at the walls. "What kind of merciful, loving God let's the world undergo a chemical war that leaves mankind infertile?"

_**I**_** AM **_**LOVE!**_

The voice boomed throughout the room, rattling the hinges on his doorway. His laptop shook on the desk, his phone falling off the nightstand and crashing to the floor. He automatically covered his head with his arms, but after a couple of seconds, everything grew quiet once again.

_**I have loved you since the beginning of time. I've loved every moment of your life, every hair upon your head, every tear that has fallen from your eyes. I loved you enough to die for you so that your sins could be forgiven and so that I could someday hold you in my arms the way I've longed to all these years…**_

Some feeling was making its way through his stomach, up his chest and into his throat. It felt like it was closing on him, but he couldn't find the words to say back. He could only stare at his hands.

_**When you give your heart to me, you become worthy of forgiveness by the blood that covers your sin. Come back to me, my love. Come back to me and let me heal your broken heart.**_

**_---_**

"How much time do we have?" Hilde whispered into his hair as he hugged her close to his chest, her fingers weaving patterns along his back. She was still in the hospital bed but looking much better now that he was back. The moment he had walked into the room she had burst into happy tears, reaching for him.

"I'm afraid we only have a few hours before I have to be back at the base, babe." He said, sitting back. She continued to stroke him wherever she could touch – his hands, his neck, his stomach. He seemed to drink her in with his eyes, an incomparable brightness lining their depths. "Lena was able to convince him to come back, and he started remembering the moment he got back to Preventor's. He's remembering bits and pieces at a time, but mostly when it has something to do with her."

"Did you try to talk him into coming back before she did? Is that how you got_ that_?" she said, pointing at his bruised neck. He grinned sheepishly.

"Well, he made me angry." He laughed, then got up and pulled a stretcher from the other side of the room right next to hers. She attempted to give him an annoyed look, but only succeeded for about a moment before she smiled up at him. He jumped over the side of the stretcher and laid next to her. He rubbed his fingers over her stomach gently, somber as he stared down at it.

"We're going to have a baby."

"Yeah." She said, flashing a toothy smile at him. They both burst out into a fit of giggles.

---

The next morning, they all arrived at the shuttle landing at exactly 0500 hours. Duo yawned sleepily as Wufei walked past him and scowled, Preventor's a madhouse around them. Une was busy yelling instructions at the top of the landing while Quatre and Dorothy were going over the blueprints of the girl's camp. Heero was walking around in his space suit with his helmet in his hand as Une suddenly shouted out for everyone to board. Everyone began to make their way towards the opening in the shuttle that would be occupied by the officers, and to its side was a much smaller, stealthier plane. This would be what Heero, Duo, Wufei, Quatre and Dorothy would be sneaking into the compound in under the pretense of Dorothy visiting Alexei.

Heero reached down to snap open his helmet and put it on, but golden hair jutting out slightly from under a helmet caught his attention. A female officer was boarding the shuttle, but he sighed and ran over towards her, yanking off her helmet. Relena whirled around and glared at him.

"That _hurt_!" She said, rubbing her scalp. He stared incredulously at her.

"What are you doing, Relena?"

"I'm going with you." She said, determination in her voice.

"No, you're not." He said simply. They had been through this before. Une called out for Heero to hurry up, as everyone else had already boarded the shuttle and was waiting on him. She ducked back into the cavity of the open shuttle before sticking her head out and raising an eyebrow at who Heero was talking to, her back to Une.

"Relena, you're not coming. It's not safe." She yelled, then ducked back in.

Relena placed her hands on her hips and glared at him as he began to walk away, but in mid-stride he stopped and turned back around towards her. Without giving her a chance to react, he grabbed the back of her head and pushed her forward, pressing her lips firmly to his. The complaint that had begun to issue forth out of her mouth was immediately silenced as he took her breath away, her eyes fluttering closed as he kissed her as hard as he could. There would be no helmet in the way this time.

Whistles and cat-calls from the direction of the stealth plain broke them out of their kiss, and she bowed her head as her face turned bright red. But Heero only looked at her openly and lifted her chin, her eyes wide as saucers.

"I've been wanting to tell you something." He began, some kind of passion storming behind his eyes. "The night I was taken, I had been planning on telling you this. I won't let the opportunity pass me by again, Relena. I don't know what's going to happen after this mission. I know that the success rates are on our side, but I just need you to listen and know this."

She nodded dumbly.

"My past is gone, unreachable, and I can't live it out again. If I could, I wouldn't change any of it, because it led me to you. All that I can give you are my moments like these. All that I can give you are my tomorrows, my dreams, my longing. This is what you are to me, what you mean. You are my redemption, my living proof that God is listening. Falling in love with you has determined, changed…sculptured me into who I am now. When I look at you, I see my future. I see what was once a futile hope come smashing its way through every expectation, through every disappointment. Relena Dorlian-Peacecraft, in the flesh, loving me for every reason that I could never and probably _will_ never understand. And I also see that I could stay right where I am and never do anything else great in my life but love you, and still feel fulfilled. Still feel like I'm doing what I was meant to do all along."

Her knees felt like jelly. Her breathing quickened slightly, and she placed her hand over her chest as her heart rate sped up. He loved her. He loved her too.

He reached up and placed a strand of hair behind her ear, and at his touch, she closed her eyes. The feeling of his lips against her eyelids calmed her as he kissed them both.

"Believe in me." He whispered, and then he was walking away from her and on to the plane with the others. She could only stare after him.

---

Heero's earpiece crackled to life as he switched in on. The five of them had arrived unnoticed on to the colony and in to the compound, all attention being diverted to the giant shuttle that contained Preventor's officers. The five of them had made it inside the building and were scaling the walls as they heard guards shouting at several girls in the cafeteria, many of them crying. They had to hurry in and stop this before anymore of the girls were harmed under the procedure. If it was the same treatment that he had been given, they wouldn't last very long…

"Heero." Duo whispered, eyeing him through his helmet. "It's time for us to separate. Are you and Dorothy ready?" He turned around to face her, but she was staring at Quatre and whispering something in his ear. He looked at her oddly for a moment, and then kissed her hand. She smiled and then left his side to come stand beside Heero.

"I'm ready." She said forwardly, an ominous effect to her voice that lingered as unusual in his mind. He had to quit trying to evaluate everything and get moving. He shook his head and gave a thumbs-up to Duo, and the four of them broke apart as Dorothy trailed behind him.

They continued walking quietly for several moments, but Dorothy was glancing around nervously.

"Can you hear something?"

"No." She snapped at him, glancing around her once more. "I just know how Alexei is. He's very thorough. He thinks that the more guards you have, the better. He is sneaky."

"Must run in the family." He said, and she glared at him, cocking a freakish eyebrow.

"Speaking of Alexei, how was my dear old half-brother's treatment of you while you were in containment, Heero?"

He ignored her as they turned a corner, turning around it swiftly and aiming his gun at anyone who could be standing there. He thought it odd that they had yet to come across any guards in these hallways, but he continued to ignore the feeling as oversensitivity.

"I hear he can be quite brutal. Especially considering that one of the side effects of directly injecting the chemical into a man is sterility."

He stopped suddenly, his stomach dropping at the words.

He was sterile?

"They didn't tell you?" She mocked concern, placing her hand over her mouth. "Oh, that's right. They haven't evaluated you yet. I'm so sorry, Heero."

He stared at the ground as she placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, something burning at the back of his eyes. How did she know…?

"Do you know what the best part about all of this is?" She whispered into his ear, rubbing her fingers across his shoulder blades.

Pain shot through his pelvis as she jammed a needle directly over his hipbone. He jumped back from her and yanked it out, but he was on the ground and convulsing before he had time to realize what was going on. She stared down at him darkly.

"You're not going to remember a single thing."


	10. Chapter Nine

_**Surely as the Sun**_

**Chapter Nine**

The earpiece in his ear was going crazy with Une's confusing dialogue, Quatre not clearly able to register exactly what it was she was saying as she continued to state orders to others within her vicinity.

"Commander."

She did not hear him, and continued. Duo looked pensively at him. They were in a tight spot, and footsteps could be heard around the other side of the hallway. It would not do for them to be heard at this point in the overthrow.

"Une_, shut up_."

She paused and, for a moment, he thought she'd be completely quiet. But even as he took a step forward, her voice continued to leak out across the miniscule speaker in his ear.

"Duo, code Judas."

Duo whirled around and stared at him, confusion clearly written across his face. Quatre's eyes darted around the room as he looked for a place to take the conversation, but no sooner had he thought it then Duo had tackled Quatre to the ground. He placed his hands on his shoulders and straddled him to the ground, but Quatre quickly barrel-rolled him over. They went tumbling backwards across the hallway, and in the distance, yelling could be heard.

He looked around frantically for a place to hide, but Duo was intent on leaving him defenseless. He lifted his leg around Duo's side and used the muscles of his thigh to effectively push him down, but Duo slipped out of his hold before he was completely pinned to the ground. Quatre lay flat on his stomach, but he pushed himself off the ground with his hands quickly. Duo's foot against his back sent him face first back in to the concrete, and he ground his teeth together. Behind him, Duo cocked his gun and pointed it straight at the back of his head.

---

Dorothy swore as the skin on the back of her hand broke against the harsh cement of the ground. She had placed her hand behind the back of Heero's head as he continued to have seizures and knock it against the cement. It wouldn't do to have him kill himself before she could get any use out of him. Below her, she could hear his throat open and close in a sort of choking sound as his body attempted to process the chemical, the sweat soaking through the sleeves of his shirt and touching her skin. She sat still for a few minutes as he continued, and after a while he calmed down. His eyes opened slowly, Prussian blue quiet and calculating as he began to focus on her face. She smiled down at him.

"Hello."

He sat upright and stared at her for a moment, then surveyed his surroundings. The look in his eyes was as methodic and calculating as an Eagle scanning for prey along the coast, and for a moment, Dorothy was truly afraid. If he wasn't immediately on her side, this could get really ugly really fast.

"There's someone coming." He stated, and simply looked at her, awaiting her response. Good. He was at her beck and call.

"I know. They're supposed to be. Are you all right?"

He stood up slowly and continued to scope out the long hallway. He was noticing several small details that she was sure were far below her hearing capability.

He stayed still behind her as several guards rounded the corner with guns in tow, but when they saw them they did not react violently. One of them walked up to her, careful under Heero's watchful gaze.

"Is everything going according to plan?"

"Yes." She said, glaring at him in the dim hallway lights. "Is Alexei ready?"

He nodded his head slowly.

"There weren't supposed to be any young girls involved. It'll cost him for that." She ground out, mounting her gun against her shoulder as she started to walk off. Heero trailed behind her, but he paused and looked to the side as he caught a familiar sweet scent.

---

"Tell me exactly what is going on right now, Quatre, or I swear I will send this bullet straight through your skull."

Duo dug the barrel closer towards the scalp of his head, and Quatre winced as the cold metal left its mark. He could hear frantic orders coming from Duo's earpiece, but couldn't make out what they were saying. He didn't have to imagine much though. Duo yanked the piece out of his ear and glared once again at Quatre.

"You have one minute to tell me, or I have direct orders to blow your head off where you kneel. They didn't even want to give you a chance to explain yourself, so I'm doing you a huge favor, buddy."

Quatre smiled despite himself, but quickly frowned as Duo pushed his face into the dirt with his gun.

"Now!"

"Dorothy was wired during our briefing!" He sputtered, digging his fingernails into the ground. Duo paused. He clicked the safety off.

"Continue."

"She didn't realize it going in. Somebody must have tapped her. She didn't want to blow her cover, so she called Alexei up and let him know that it was all part of the plan to get Heero back to him. She's been in continued contact with Alexei since all of this started."

"Why didn't she just tell Une about it?"

"Alexei didn't give her anymore orders until she was on base, right when we stepped foot on this colony. She's been wired ever since the briefing and Alexei would have known if she had tried anything sneaky. She also knew that you and Une and Relena would think it was unethical to inject Heero with the chemical again. We both knew that it would have to be a decision we made on our own. Heero's senses were not as heightened without the chemical in his system, and we couldn't risk everyone getting killed because of it. We couldn't risk never finding a cure just because you wouldn't want Heero to take the chemical again."

"How do you know all of this?"

He smiled in spite of himself. "Out of all of you, I am the least involved with Heero. She trusted that my judgment wouldn't be impaired out of concern for him alone. She told me, and then placed a transmitter on me so that I could hear every order she received from Alexei through the wire they have on her."

The pressure on the back of his head lessened, and he sat up off the ground. Duo still held the gun in front of him. Quatre sighed and rubbed the back of his head.

"When Heero comes to, the first person he sees is automatically the one he receives orders from. Heero is following Dorothy and obeying her every command as we speak. When she is able to get close to Alexei, she will tell Heero to kill him."

Duo holstered his gun and picked his earpiece off the ground, speaking into it quietly.

"Did you get all that, Une?"

Duo pushed the piece back into his ear and then nodded, reaching out and helping Quatre off the ground.

"She was supposed to give me a little more leeway before she injected him. I was supposed to explain all of this to you before she did it, but I guess she grew restless. Just like her." He snorted, and followed Duo quietly through the hallway.

---

Mariemeia ran a shaky hand across Trowa's bandaged side, her breath coming out in puffs of white air. They had sanctioned the three of them inside of this room with nothing but antiseptic and a few bandages, and this wasn't enough to hold Trowa together for much longer. The explosion happened so quickly that she didn't have time to react, but Trowa did, and he had pushed her out of the way before she had received any real damage. Trowa's side, however, had taken most of the impact. There was a gaping wound that ran the length of his torso, and he had long since lost consciousness. His breathing was labored, and the freezing temperature of this room did little to help with his breathing. He had grown pale and was losing too much blood. If someone didn't come for them soon…

In the corner, Kale shifted. Something wasn't right about the whole situation. They obviously knew that the three of them were working with Preventor's, otherwise they would have simply stationed them with the other girls. How they knew, however, was yet to be discovered.

Trowa groaned next to her, and she wiped the sweat that had formed on his brow. He had a fever. Infection had set in.

---

Dorothy glanced around the large cafeteria they were being led through. Alexei stood at the front of it with a gun in hand and smiled sardonically at her from his position. His eyes lit up with something she could only describe as madness as Heero stepped up from behind her, shielding her against any form of attack.

"I see you've brought me a present, Dorothy. How nice of you to bring back what was stolen from me."

"We agreed there would be no experimentation." She ground out, stepping in front of Heero. Several of the guards immediately straightened and aimed their guns at her, and she took a step back, scowling. Heero stood cold as stone behind her, never taking his eyes off of Alexei.

"Honesty was never a strong point in our family. There really was no need for it, anyway. We Patrenko's and Catalonia's can handle well enough on our own, if I do say so for myself." He grinned at her. "Besides, what did you think we were going to do once we obtained our first successful experiment? Just let him be taken away?"

He sauntered his way over to both of them, eyeing Heero up and down as he tapped his rifle against his leg. There were hundreds of young girls crowded around the room, staring wide-eyed and afraid, but too tired to do anything. The guards were stationed in increments so that there was no place she could run to and be safe.

Heero's eyes quickly averted to a flash of golden hair that passed between the girls, but it was gone when he glanced that way. Something hitched in his chest.

"I have the antidote to the chemical."

Dorothy's breath caught in her throat, her hand coming up to her mouth in response.

"Although, I don't see much use for it now. Those stupid scientists made it, right before they went back on their word. Right when we had revolution within our grasp!"

Her eyes widened as she realized something everyone had overlooked.

"You killed them."

He threw his head back and laughed, clearly losing his mind. The guards shifted uncomfortably next to her, and Heero simply stood awaiting her orders.

"They didn't commit suicide. You killed them. But…why, Alexei?"

His eyes hardened and he looked straight at Heero, holding his gun close to his side.

"They only wanted to use the chemical as a threat. They never actually wanted to release it…all of those years of hard work, wasted…all for the cause of a governmental rebellion! Why, I ask you, would they stop there? It is not just the government that needs to be revolutionized; it is the _world_, dear sister!"

The guards had started glancing warily at one another, lowering their guns. They obviously did not realize what it was they were guarding these girls for up until then, and several of them were having second thoughts. This was to their obvious advantage, but Alexei, unfortunately, had begun to notice it too.

"What are you doing?! I'm not paying you to stand there gawking! There are three more of them wondering around out there somewhere, and we still haven't found them! _LOOK_!"

Dorothy glanced up at him, confused. Duo and Quatre were the only ones given clearance to invade the premises besides herself and Heero. Three more?

She didn't have much time to think about it, because the guards had all started to walk behind her. Alexei began to panic and wave his gun around in the air as he realized he was being overthrown, an unnatural gleam to his eye. She could not tell Heero to kill Alexei, because only he knew where the antidote to the chemical was. She had to find a way to disarm him and keep him alive…

She didn't have much time to think anymore about it, because at that moment, Alexei had set it in his mind that he was going to get his way or die trying. He aimed his gun at Dorothy, and Heero instinctually whipped out his Preventor's gun and shot at Alexei even as Dorothy screamed "NO!".

The moment was lost, however, as a flash of golden hair jumped out from somewhere to the left of Alexei and shielded him. Dorothy watched in shock as Relena's small frame took the hit directly in the chest, her body wracked and falling backwards. Everything seemed to play in slow motion as Alexei stared disbelievingly at her as she fell, Quatre and Duo coming in from somewhere just behind him and watching the scene unfold in front of them in horror. Something seemed to visibly break in Duo's face as he watched her hit the ground, hard. Quatre snapped out of his trance quickly and immediately disarmed Alexei from behind, slamming his head into the ground. His gun skidded across the floor.

Next to her, Heero's eyes widened and he shook his head, taking a step backwards. He looked around for a moment, disoriented, but then glanced back at Relena. She would never forget the look on his face in that moment as he remembered.

He ran to her faster than any of them could imagine. Crimson seemed to stain everything around her as the blood pumped from her chest, covering her, covering him, covering everything. He held her in his arms as her eyes swam around the room.

"Relena, I…"

She couldn't seem to focus on anything, but she could hear him. His voice choked on something as he tried to recall everything that had happened, knowing in his heart that nothing was all right, and it never would be.

"If I could take back the years," She gasped, her tears taking free reign down her beautiful face and landing in dark spots across the padding of his vest. "If I could take back all the years…"

His hands shook as he coddled her to him, kissing her forehead. His eyes stared down at her, more beautiful than she had ever seen. Liquid ran down his face as the man who never cried for anything cried for her.

"The years…" She whispered, her eyes drifting closed.


	11. Chapter Ten

_Two days later…_

Mariemeia clinched the tissue inside of her pocket, her nails digging into her palm as she stared at the urn that was currently being displayed inside the funeral home. The room was bare save for the Gundam Pilots and herself, Hilde and Une, all dressed in black. Ahead of them, the minister cleared his throat and stepped up to the podium.

"We are gathered here today in remembrance of one of the true heroes in the history of the Eve Wars and the peace withstanding in her wake. Although we can not begin to fathom the reasons behind the necessity of these things, God, in his infinite love and devotion, has reminded us to count our sufferings as joy. That though sorrow may last for the night, joy comes in the morning…"

She glanced away as he continued, someone who barely knew of whom he was talking about. It shouldn't be him up there. It should be someone who knew.

Like Heero.

She looked at him and found him staring at the ground with his hands held together in front, his entire aura giving off desperation. She could not see his face for his hair, but he did not falter, did not move. He would give nothing away.

Until he, in his admirable grace and devastating need for answers, looked up at her. She gasped at the coldness and pain underlining their depths, his eyes immediately taking everything in her world and bringing whatever understanding she thought she had to its knees. He continued to blatantly stare at her, no emotion on his face, but everything in his eyes.

No wonder she loved him so.

"…and, though we can not begin to fathom what that beautiful world is like when we depart from this one, one thing we do know is that the closest thing to it is love. The book of John is written by someone who is identified in the Bible as "the one whom Jesus loved". And in John 15:13, the author writes "Greater love has no one than this, that he should lay down his life for his friends."

I believe that the way life was sacrificed by Trowa Barton unarguably gives me the authority to say that he lived a life of love. Considering that this was, in fact, the way death came. I do not believe that, if given the chance to take it back, he would…"

Her eyes burned, and she painfully grinded her teeth as tears stubbornly made their way down her youthful face. Hilde turned to Duo and buried her head in his chest as he uncharacteristically stared mournfully at the front of the building where the urn was, trying to comfort Hilde. Really, she knew, he was finding comfort in her just as much as he rubbed her back.

Next to her, Une reached up and quickly flicked away a tear that had begun to form in her eyes, staring forlornly at the urn. But strong. Very strong.

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…"

Before long, the funeral was over, and nothing felt better. Heero hurried out of the building as fast as he could and took off on a motorcycle, while the rest of them watched cautiously.

---

"Let me in. I need to see her."

Heero struggled to move past the crowd of doctors who pushed him out of ICU, trying to resist the urge to crush all of them against the wall.

"She needs her rest, sir."

"I've been gone for two hours; I need to see her _now_."

"She is being visited by Ms. Une and the doctor, Mr. Yuy. She can have no more than two visitors at a time. When she comes out, you may enter."

He growled and jerked his shoulder out of their hold, stomping off in the direction of the waiting room. When he reached it, he sat back in a chair and tapped his foot impatiently at the ground, biting his nails and glancing nervously around the room. When the other guests had seen him walk in they had hurried out.

After five minutes but what seemed to Heero like two hours, the sound of Une's heels making their way down the hallway had him bolting out of the seat and in her direction. When she saw him she reached up a hand before he had a chance to say anything.

"She's fine. The doctor's think she'll be able to get out of the ICU tomorrow."

This did nothing to appease him as he glared at her. She lifted an eyebrow.

"Remember your place, Yuy."

"I don't report to you." He ground out, clenching and unclenching his fists. Some of the effects of the chemical had yet to wear off.

Her eyes widened a fraction, and Heero took the opportunity to walk past her.

"Wait, Heero! I think they must have upped her painkillers."

He sighed and turned around to face her.

"What?"

"When I walked in, she told me Trowa had come in to see her. Trowa and a woman with long blonde hair. Relena said she was holding his hand like her life depended on it."

He stared at her coldly for a moment, leaning against the wall. "She's _awake_?"

"She said he gave her this," she pulled out a crucifix, dangling the chain in front of his eyes, "And said that he was proud of her. Said this was the last time she'd see him."

"Did you see Trowa's body before it was cremated?"

"Well…no," She sputtered. "But you don't think…I mean, there's no way…"

"Then I believe her." He said, then turned around and made his way to the double doors that led to Relena.

---

When he finally reached her room, all of that anxious energy he had had before was suddenly drained as he became nervous. He had not left her side save for the funeral and her surgery for the past two days, but she had been unconscious up until then. He had been praying for her, talking to her, anything he could do in hopes that it would help…but could she forgive him after all he'd done?

He opened the door to her room and found her lying on her side facing the wall, in a position that had to be painful to her chest. He walked to her side and lightly grazed his knuckles along her back, and she turned over sleepily to face him. She smiled.

"Heero."

He smiled back, tinged with sadness and regret. It did not go unnoticed. She immediately became serious.

"Now don't you go thinking for one minute that I blame you for this." She stated harshly, eyeing him up and down. He was slightly taken aback.

"I'm serious. I know you didn't do that on purpose. It was my choice."

He sat dumbfounded for a moment, wondering how in the world she could seem to understand everything without even trying. Having such an optimistic attitude and hope, so uncharacteristic of the way he had been trained to be…he stared at her, completely amazed. But skeptical.

"I almost _killed_ you, Relena. If that bullet had been any closer to your heart, I would have. If I hadn't killed you I would have succeeded in single-handedly killing the only person capable of developing a cure, and would have effectively killed off a dying mankind. It's what I was trained to do. It's who I am."

Her eyes had begun to water. "I don't believe that." She said shakily, taking in a deep breath, which required a lot of energy. Something in him fumed at how naïve she was being.

"How can you not believe that?!" His voice rose, and he stood up from his chair to get closer to her. "Even after the war was over it was the only thing I was considered good for. I am used because of how 'perfect' I am, it's how everyone sees me. It's how everyone will see me for the rest of my life, and I'll always be a danger to you. This has proven that more than anything to me. I will not allow your safety to be conflicted because of me."

"That's not your choice!" She bit back, somehow finding the energy to yell back at him. "You don't get to decide for me! It's not your choice…" She stopped, her tears spilling over her face. Her heart monitor had started beeping at faster and faster speeds. He stared at her completely in shock, and that was how the doctors found them minutes later when they forced him to leave.

---

"Sir, you can't go in th – " He pushed the secretary out of the way as he marched into the interrogation room. He turned the doorknob, but it was locked. He walked back a few paces and then ran towards the door, kicking it down and off its hinges as it slammed into the room. Duo stood at the table with his arm reaching for his gun, wide-eyed. Alexei sat at the table with his hands in front of him in cuffs.

"Heero, what in the world are you doing?" Dup started, but Heero ignored him and walked over to Alexei and pulled out his gun. He pointed it directly at his temple with murder in his eyes.

"Where is it?" He stated darkly, his voice low and gruff as it rumbled through the room. Alexei grinned.

"What makes you think that I would tell – "

Heero threw back his hand and whipped the gun around, knocking Alexei in the back of his head. He threw his cuffed hands up to block another blow as he fell over in his chair.

"WHERE IS IT?!" His eyes lit up with anger, his grip harsh on the gun.

Duo quietly walked over to him. "Heero, man, this isn't your jurisdicti – "

They both stopped as they heard a quiet laugh coming from the chair, which heightened until Alexei was openly guffawing on the ground, blood pouring down his head. Duo pulled at Heero's shoulder, but Heero took a step forward and kicked Alexei's chair, sending it crashing across the room. Alexei winced but continued laughing. Enraged, Heero reached down and grabbed him by the collar, hefting him up and slamming him against the wall. Alexei struggled to breathe as Heero held all of his weight off the ground by pushing against his wind pipe with his hand. His eyes bugged.

Heero leaned in close to the side of his face and focused on him, his eyes slit and calculating.

"I think you know exactly of what I am capable of. Tell me now, unless you want to undergo one of your own little experiments…" At this, Alexei glanced nervously at him. Heero grinned, his eyes tinged with rage. "Yeah, I watched."

Alexei tried to say something, but the sound only came out a gurgle as Heero's fist stayed wrapped around his throat. His face had started to turn purple. Duo was screaming behind him, calling frantically for him to stop.

"What? I didn't hear you."

"Lie…" He wheezed, and Heero dropped him. He fell to his knees and gasped in air, touching his neck carefully with the fingers of his cuffed hands. After a few minutes of him gasping, Heero took a step towards him.

"I lied!" He strained, staring up at him pitifully. "There is no antidote."

"_What?"_

This time, it came from behind him. Alexei looked up at him warily as Duo came from behind Heero, his eyes violent and turgid with something he couldn't quite explain.

"You mean she did all that…for _nothing_?"

Duo pounced towards him, but Heero's arm shot out and held him in place. He continued to stare incredulously at Alexei while Duo started spouting off curses next to him. Alexei scrambled away from them, hiding in the corner of the room and holding up his hands in surrender.

"We don't need one!" He exclaimed. Heero continued to stare him down silently. Alexei swallowed.

"The women are naturally evolving. My earlier experiments showed me that…I just hadn't realized it would be so soon."

"What do you mean they're naturally evolving?" Duo spat, Heero's hand still bunched up in his shirt to hold him back.

"I mean, they're bodies are conforming to the chemical, the same way we conform to prosthetic legs or viruses and immunities."

"Explain it!"

Alexei drew back and yelped. After a moment of composing himself, he took a deep breath and stared up at the two of them.

"What is it that separates organic life from inorganic life? The science of biology, the three meanings to our physical existence. Growth." He said, rubbing his hands over his neck. His voice had begun to crack.

"Growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the adaptation to our environments. That is simply what they are doing. They're bodies are adapting to their environments in order to reproduce."

Heero lowered his gun, eyeing him cautiously. Duo let out a heavy sigh and fell down into his seat next to Heero, running his hands through his disheveled hair that had started to unravel.

"That was why you started to work on me." Heero said quietly, looking at his gun. Silence hung in the air as people had begun to gather around the door frame. Alexei smiled.

"Yes. In order to have a more perfect weapon…" he said, taking a kerchief out of his pocket and wiping the blood on his head, "And to make a new chemical capable of making men sterile, that _could not_ be adapted to."

---

Relena grimaced in her sleep as a noise drove her out of it, trying to block out the lights from the room. Her chest didn't hurt so badly, mainly because they had her on so many painkillers, but she seriously had to pee. But she wanted to sleep more…

The same noise came to her attention, and she listened attentively. Someone was in her room!

Scrape.

Shift.

Sigh.

Gasp.

Moan.

"Quatre, what…?"

"Shhhh…."

Smack.

Relena cracked open an eye. Quatre had Dorothy pinned up to the wall with one hand on both of her wrists above her head and the other placed gently over her hip, frenching her right there. Relena stared wide-eyed, and, not noticing her, she finally coughed. They both jerked apart and stared wildly at her.

"You're making out in my hospital room." She stated, a smile on her lips. Quatre blushed sheepishly and scratched his head, while Dorothy simply grinned.

"It's good to see you Relena." He smiled, then darted out of the room. Dorothy wiped some of her smeared lipstick off her mouth and slid her way over to Relena, sitting down in a chair next to her. She donned a smile with an ulterior motive, her eyes lit up with amusement.

"I'm not going to ask." Relena laughed, adjusting her pillow to her lower back. The doctors had been completely amazed at how quickly she was recovering; already having moved her out of ICU that afternoon right after Heero had left.

Heero…

"Has he come to see you?"

Relena glanced up at Dorothy, amazed to see genuine concern in her eyes. Something she could never get over about Dorothy was her ability to be malicious when it came to getting what she wanted, but just as selfless and caring when it came to those she loved. The woman had lost her parents when she was a young girl and had been one of the most hated women during the Eve Wars, yet…still needed, in some weird way. And trusted, of all people. Quatre obviously did, and Relena knew from experience that he was an excellent judge of character.

"Une told me he hasn't left my side since I came to the hospital, except for the funeral. When he came back he talked to me and said…some things…"

"Let me guess," Dorothy sighed, tapping her finger against her chin. "He's 'not worthy'".

Relena looked up at her, surprised. "Exactly."

"Relena, I think there's something you should know…"

---

"Dang, can you believe the nerve of that guy?" Duo complained, walking with Heero through the hospital halls. Heero walked stoically by his side, lost in another world.

"I mean, after all that…and women are going to all eventually become fertile again. This week has been CRAZY…" Duo glanced at Heero, noticing that he had yet to even glance his way. "Heero?"

He waved his hand in front of his face, and Heero glared at him. "What is up with you, man? You should be happy. Relena's all right, you'll be able to get married and have babies and all that stuff…"

Heero immediately stiffened, sadness sweeping across his eyes quickly. Duo stared at him for a moment, completely confused, before pausing.

"Aw, man, I'm sorry…"

Heero suddenly sat back against the wall and slid down to the floor, running his fingers through his tangled hair in an uncharacteristic display of hopelessness. He growled under his breath as Duo sat down Indian-style next to him, nervously rubbing his hands inside his pockets.

"I don't deserve her." He stated simply, staring in to space while his mind took him to another place. "And yet…she refuses to allow me to leave. She just won't. But even if I do decide to stay, will she still want me knowing that I can't give her the things she desires?"

Duo awkwardly placed his hand on his shoulder and squeezed, staring at him sympathetically.

"I don't know man," he stated, patting him on the back. "But you've gotta try."

---

When he reached her door, he couldn't bring himself to knock. The woman in this room had the ability to crush his heart, his entire world with the next few words exchanged between them. He had been pacing back and forth for the past few hours just trying to think of the words to say, but none of it came out the right way. When he left this room, he knew his life would be changed forever. For better or worse.

He took a deep breath and pushed open the door. Relena looked up at him from her hospital bed and lifted the corner of her mouth in some resemblance of a smile, lowering the volume on her television with her remote control. He walked to her side and took her hand in his.

"I can not see how I can ever be worthy of you."

"Heero…"

"Let me finish." He said quickly, looking in to her eyes. "But somehow, you just won't see it that way, and I know that no matter how many times I try to convince you of it you won't believe me. You deserve the very best, Relena."

He knelt down on one knee beside her bed and pulled out a black box. Her hand flew up to her mouth, her eyes going wide as she stared at the beautiful diamond ring cushioned between the velvet as he flipped it open. His eyes stared uncertainly up at her, clear and desperate as the day she met him on that beach so long ago.

"Before you answer, I need you to know something. There are a lot of things in me that are completely damaged. Things I don't understand, emotions that I don't know how to name, let alone react to. You make me feel things that I never knew existed outside of the battlefield, dream things I never thought to even imagine. To grow up used can leave us all so…scarred. But then you wake up one morning, and all that empty stuff you thought would define you is wiped away by looking in to someone's eyes that genuinely cares about you." His hand clinched at his side as he looked down at his feet, choking up. He took in a deep breath as he looked back up at her, his eyes shining. "I'm giving you a choice," Here, he faltered. "I know that you want me in spite of the blood on my hands, but even if you have me, I can not give you everything you wanted. I can't have children, Relena…"

"I know." She cupped his face in her hands and peered down at him from her bed, remnants of tear stains down her cheeks. "The one thing I'm sure of in my life is that I was made to love you, Heero Yuy. And nothing is ever going to change that."

She leaned in and placed her lips softly against his forehead as he closed his eyes, relishing in the feeling of it. She placed her hand over his and encased them both around the ring as she whispered softly, "You're enough."


	12. Epilogue

AN: I don't own Gundam Wing.

Oh WOW, I can't believe I finished it. I actually finished it! I'm kind of...sad now. Thank you everyone for all of your reviews! I've had so much fun writing this and hearing from you.

This epilogue, like much of the rest of the story, has many spiritual references.

**Surely as the Sun ******

**Epilogue**

_Over the course of the next year, women naturally adapted to the chemical released in the atmosphere. Including all animal life, the process of trying to broaden the population of near-extinct species of animals was at the top of every list as mankind began to hope once again. Relena was hurled back in to politics when news of the true origin of the chemical release was broadcasted to the public, as well as her heroic self-sacrifice. She would be forever remembered in history books for having helped save the world._

_Duo and Hilde remained happily married, and decided they were going to have as many children as possible. They are now on number four, and Duo boasted that they "would never stop trying. And hey, I'm totally fine with that!" followed by his characteristic suggestive wink._

_Wufei and Sally still work within Preventor's, denying rumors that they were in any way involved in a relationship._

_But everyone knew they really were._

_Dorothy and Quatre eloped not soon after the entire incident was over, and she now lives with him in one of his many mansions and helps to oversee his business, as well as its true power in politics._

_Mariemeia and Une lived happily together as mother and daughter, though Mariemeia could never quite get over the nagging feeling that her mother was hiding something from her soon after Relena had been released from the hospital. When she had had enough, she grew desperate and broke in to her mother's office, as well as her encrypted files on her laptop. Opening a suspicious email from a "No-name", her summaries were confirmed as she read it:_

_"In deep with this one. Don't try to contact. I'm fine."_

_Heero and Relena were married one year after she was released from the hospital. She spent half of her time working and the other half trying to make up for all the time she'd lost in loving Heero Yuy right, and love him right she did. She was determined in believing that God was still a healer, and that all things were possible. She even convinced Heero of it by simply loving him and speaking it to him almost every morning._

_Many years later, she miraculously gave birth to a little girl. Doctors could not explain it and called the entire conception a complete miracle and contradiction of modern science due to Heero's once-sterility. They both, however, knew exactly how it happened._

_They named her Faith._

"_**As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth."**_

_**- Hosea 6:3**_


End file.
